Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act or FCRA you have the right to obtain your equifax credit report. Credit Bureaus use your personal information to build up your credit scores and credit reports. However the way they use your personal information is regulated under this Act.

While the original act was drafted and put in place way back in 1970, it has undergone two amendments in 1990s and in 2003. Currently both access to the sensitive information relating to your credit and their uses are both regulated under FCRA.

The act is basically designed to help those consumers who wish to have their credit reports. Remember, just the fact that some of the credit bureaus provide free credit report does not automatically give them either unlimited access or use of your personal information. You can obtain the complete contents of the act from the Federal Trade Commission.

FCRA makes it obligatory for the credit bureau including Equifax to provide you with your credit report on request. On the other hand they are not entitled to provide your credit score to just any credit score estimator without permissible purposes. While most of the business purposes come within the ambits of such permissible purposes, there are also some that are not covered by it. The reporting agencies are prohibited to disclose your credit report or score for such purposes.

These provisions of law prevents unscrupulous traders from accessing your record and take undue advantage from it.