German DPA declares data trading between credit agency and address trader illegal

Credit Scoring noyb has scored a stage victory in its proceedings against the credit reference agency CRIF and the address trader Acxiom in Germany. The companies are illegally trading the personal data of millions of Germans. A little over two years ago, noyb therefore filed a complaint. Now the Bavarian data protection authority has ruled that CRIF has misused the purchased data – and therefore violated European data protection law. Meanwhile, the Hessian authority has rejected an application by Acxiom to deny noyb any access to the case files. Complaint against CRIF and AcxiomBackground: Secret, illegal data trading. The credit reference agency CRIF constantly buys personal data such as the names, addresses and dates of birth of millions of Germans from the address trader Acxiom and uses it to assess their creditworthiness. The trade happens secretly and without the consent or a notification of those affected. According to the GDPR principle of purpose limitation, data collected for