Jusletter IT

In today’s Network Society, credit is sought and granted electronically to an increasing extent. In fact, the proliferation of SMS loans, which are managed outside of the credit institutions proper, relies primarily on telecommunications and automated decision making using different databases. Changes in the type of communication alone would be reason enough to look at the use of credit information afresh, at least as part of electronic trade. Yet this would be too narrow a perspective. It is far more important that we examine the issue in broader terms. The need to regulate the use of credit information should be assessed for its pertinence to the identity of the individual in a network society that respects the rule of law. An individual’s identity as a debtor can be compared to any of the identities that are created based on sensitive information. The author proposes that credit information registers should be given the higher status of national basic registers, a category which is separately regulated. These changes would highlight the importance of credit information as critical information where the identity of an individual is concerned and would draw attention to how legally demanding the processing of such data is.