Credit Reporting Services, Assessment Example

• Describe the services provided by a credit reporting service such as Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. How are these services provided?

Credit reporting services receive payment history and other information from lenders or financial institutions based on an individual’s financial history. The company then calculates a score that is known as a credit score, which allows potential lenders to let other lenders know how a person will pay their bills. This is called the FICO score, which stands for Fair Isaac and Company (USA.gov). Things that are considered and factored into the score are bankruptcy, charge-offs and the amount of debt that a person has and the length of their credit history.

• In your opinion, what is the most important social issue raised by the pervasiveness of IT? Why? How can society best deal with the issue?

The spread of IT has spread at a fast rate and continues to do so today. Almost every company, regardless of the type, has some need for an IT department. This is because the heavy reliance on the internet and its structure. Almost everything is on the internet and many businesses have found that they can hardly run without it. The problem with the fast spread and need of IT is the mere fact of the reliance based on convenience. The fact that everyone and everything is so dependent creates difficulty and can lead to enormous deficits, considering a crash or other dry spell of networking.

• In order to protect against terrorists, the U.S. government is collecting more and more data on individuals into comprehensive databases. Have you any concerns about this? Why or why not?

The data that is being collected is used as intelligence, much like the data that is gathered based on threats. The personal information that is available through the internet, medical providers and financial institutions contains very personal information. That being said, the government or any other entity collecting information about individual’s personal lives is scary. The reason is because it can later be used to track or know something about that person. For example, if habits and behaviors are tracked, there may be a decrease in privacy or freedom if the government saw fit.

• In the United States, information that a company collects about the customer is legally the company’s property. In the European Union, this information is the individual’s property. Explain why there is this difference in the legal treatment of this information.

The difference resides in the fact that the United States attempts to balance the right and needs of the citizen against that of business (Bryan & Conley, 2012). The theory is that business needs to have information to sustain and promote their business and may likely be greater than the privacy of the individual. The European Union allows for the privacy of the individual and does not consider the “business interest”. Another difference is the fact that the United States is based on a free trade market, whereas the European Union has a more singular market, which creates a difference in focus/importance on person versus business protection.

• What is the difference between a copyright and a patent on a computer program?

A copyright is generally used for works that are considered to be based on intellect. Items like software, games and movies are generally copyrighted. The owner of a copyright has full and exclusive rights to the product, meaning that other people cannot infringe on those rights or profits. A patent is given to the direct object or process of the program. In most cases the person that patents software is given rights for a period of time for their sharing or disclosing how they created the software.

• What information security issues does electronic records management address?

Electronic records are strictly protected by security measures. There are however concerns of private and delicate material being placed in an electronic file and breached by someone else. This concern comes from the fear that the records may be broken into or tampered with by hacking. This could be harmful based on very personal information that could be exposed. Other issues include environmental issues, such as earthquakes, hurricanes or fires that could destroy records. There is also the concern that technology will malfunction, whereas the records could be destroyed or lost.

References

Brown, C. V., DeHayes, D. W., Hoffer, J. A., Martin, E. W., & Perkins, W. C. (2012). Managing Information technology (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Bryan, R., and Conley, J. “The Impact of the Proposed EU Data Privacy Regulation on U.S. Companies.” Robinson Bradshaw. 22 Mar. 2012. Web. 2 Apr. 2013. <http://www.rbh.com/proposed-eu-data-privacy-regulation-on-us-companies-03-22-2012/>.

“Credit Bureaus and Credit Scoring | USA.gov.” Credit Bureaus and Credit Scoring | USA.gov. USA.gov, 29 Mar. 2013. Web. 02 Apr. 2013 <http://www.usa.gov/topics/money/credit/credit-reports/bureaus-scoring.shtml>.