The legal definition, in ordinary words
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a consumer reporting agency is any organization that regularly assembles or evaluates information about consumers and furnishes consumer reports to third parties. The label does not depend on the company calling itself a credit bureau. It depends on what the company does with the information.
A consumer report is the output. It is information bearing on a person's credit worthiness, character, general reputation, personal characteristics, or mode of living, used or expected to be used for a permissible purpose such as employment screening, tenant screening, credit, or insurance underwriting.
What a consumer reporting agency is required to do
The FCRA is not a suggestion. It creates duties that attach the moment a company furnishes consumer reports.
- Follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy of every item reported.
- Furnish reports only to users with a permissible purpose, and verify that purpose before delivery.
- Give consumers access to their own file, and disclose the sources behind it.
- Investigate disputed items, typically within 30 days, and correct or delete what cannot be verified.
- Notify the user and the consumer when disputed information is changed or removed.
- Respect reporting time limits on older adverse items.
Consumer reports are not the same as a background search
Anyone can type a name into a search engine. That is not a consumer report, and using it to deny someone a job or an apartment is where organizations get into trouble.
The difference is process. A consumer report comes from an agency that verifies the underlying evidence, keeps a record of where each item came from, gates access behind a permissible purpose, and gives the subject a real dispute channel. A search result offers none of that.
How Hub or Dub operates as a consumer reporting agency
Hub or Dub is a U.S. consumer reporting agency. Every item that reaches a report is reviewed by a human investigator against source evidence before it is published, and every published item carries a citation back to that source.
Access is restricted. Only verified HOD Pro+ business accounts can run a report on another party, and every run requires a certified permissible purpose that is recorded with the request. Consumers can always view and monitor their own information for free, and can dispute anything they believe is wrong.