You work hard for your family every day. The bankruptcy clients we work with work hard for their families everyday too. Sometimes working hard to care for your family and keeping the bills paid leads you to only focus on those tasks. Essentially, what you do every day, your habits and behavior, become a part of how you live in your private life. However, what is unknown to some is that our everyday lives are not private and intimate details concerning our lives are for sale.

Recently Equifax, one of the three largest credit-reporting agencies, accumulated salary and employment records and sold them to Debt collectors and other financial service companies. Why should this concern you? If your information is part of the data sold, then your information may be reviewed to help a debt collector determine if you may be able to repay a past due debt that you may be currently struggling to pay.

This is important to know when a potential debt collector contacts you regarding a past due debt. It could be that the creditor is following this purchased information and basing its decision to collect from you on past financial and employment information that no longer is correct. You, as a consumer, currently have no power to update or control who receives this information. By the time the debt-collector notifies you of a collection, you may try to update your information; however, you will struggle to gain a sympathetic ear concerning your debt. If you have received debt collection notices and need the assistance of a bankruptcy attorney for advice, please contact the Maida Law Firm.

Source: Huffington Post, "Equifax Sells Private Information to Debt Collectors in 'Biggest Privacy Breach in Our Time': Report [Update], Caroline Fairchild, January, 30, 2013.