> You yourself provide this info voluntarily to a bank when apply for a loan. The same bank verifies it by asking your paystubs before giving you a loan.

This is really harmful phrasing - blaming the individual.

> when apply for a loan

This seems like general population data, nothing specific to people who’ve taken loans.

I was not trying to blame the individual, sorry if it appeared that way.

Mostly it is the unique messed up american system of credit information exchange where consumers have no control over how their data gets collected/used/sold.

I have never signed up an agreement with Equifax to store my personal data only to get it stolen occasionally. I wish US adopted more european centric models for personal data.

Do you know where I can buy this information? It might be interesting to know how much to expect from various companies. Or do they only sell to employers?

Replying to myself, there's a front page story about it now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29834753