The agencies then gather and package personal information into consumer reports that are sold to creditors, employers, insurers, and other businesses.
Individuals may request their own consumer reports which contain basic biographical information such as name, date of birth, current address, and phone number.
Employee background check reports, which contain highly detailed information such as past addresses and length of residence, professional licenses, and criminal history, may be requested by eligible and qualified third parties.
Not only can this data be used in employee background checks, but it may also be used to make decisions about insurance coverage, pricing, and law enforcement.
The aggregator and financial institution may agree on a data feed arrangement activated on the customer's request, using an Open Financial Exchange (OFX) standard to request and deliver information to the site selected by the customer as the place from which they will view their account data.
"Screen scraping" without consent by the content provider has the advantage of allowing subscribers to view almost any and all accounts they happen to have opened anywhere on the Internet through one website.
Over time, the transfer of large amounts of account data from the account provider to the aggregator's server could develop into a comprehensive profile of a user, detailing their banking and credit card transactions, balances, securities transactions and portfolios, and travel history and preferences.