Equifax’s chief executive says he opposes federal legislation that lets consumers obtain a free copy of their credit report to help them monitor financial accounts for fraudulent activity.

CEO Thomas Chapman called the legislation unconstitutional and un-American because it cuts into profits that Equifax and two rival credit reporting agencies — Experian and TransUnion — earn from selling credit reports and monitoring services. Equifax maintains credit data on 220 million Americans. The company earned $1.27 billion in revenue last year.

Thanks to ioerror for the heads-up. You can get your free credit report here, but the service is not available to Virginians until 1 September. These companies have a massive responsibility to the consumers, a responsibility in which they have been negligent for some time, as evidenced by the numerous errors on each of their reports, their labyrinthian systems for removing errors and, last but not least, the recent spate of security breaches. If you think your identity may be compromised, you can start here.

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