The data and credit scores are sent from the credit score agencies to each person directly (via snail-mail). After that they can decide to upload their "anonymized" data or not.
In order to develop a privacy focused uploading process we started the crowdfunding campaign.
Why don't they just deliver them to you?
I'm sorry but this is highly sensible data and the "where does the money come from" caution is the first line of defense a normal user has. Most of the time it is the only one.
Partnering with Bertelsmann here was a huge mistake. It questions not only data security it questions this first line of defense.
Think about it, how am I supposed to tell somebody to give their data to you when I already told them to look for the money first? I'd make myself and my methods unbelievable, incoherent and probably corrupted.
This is really terrible because this research is necessary and important but I hope you understand that I will neither support it nor recommend it...
we, the OKFDE, have no partnership with Bertelsmann
our partner, algorithmwatch, has - independently from this project - funding from Bertelsmann Stiftung
again the data is first delivered only to the user, afterwards he/she can decide what to do
Fair enough. I've donated, even though I still think that developing OCR app might be a bit waste of resources.
I still find it to be lesser "evil" than schufa - which, I'm pretty sure, is also extremely discriminatory towards people who move to Germany and giving them worse score by default. Hopefully you'll get enough optional data to be able to prove that too.
Not defending the Schufa, I strongly believe that any kind of aggregated credit history should never be in the hands of private companies.
But when I moved to Germany, I was under the impression that potential landlords just want to make sure you don't have negative entries, and didn't care much for the actual score. Luckily I managed to find an apartment belonging to a Russian investor, who didn't ask for my record at all. In the end I never got myself to even request a free report.
Yes, that's what's important for landlords. You get a letter from scufa saying "There are no negative entries for this person". That's enough.
However if you try to get a phone contract, credit card, internet contract, or anything else that requires payment in the future then your score is pretty much the only relevant part.
And that score is (maybe it varies by country) completely abysmal by default if you've moved to Germany - and it improves very slowly (<1%/yr).
I had no issue signing up for internet with 1&1 for two years, and got a free SIM card in the process.
As for credit cards, that's pretty common, traditional banks want to see your salary landing on your checking account for a few months before they issue you a credit card. Comdirect gave me a prepaid VISA in the meantime.
Anyway I ended up using a debit card (the MasterCard from N26) for almost everything, and later on I got a Gold credit card from Advanzia (I believe they do get information from the Schufa, but you also start with a pretty low monthly limit and need to prove them you pay your bills before they raise it).
Did you also cite the part where you are being financially supported by Bertelsmann Stiftung who have a competing product (Arvato Infoscore)? Though I am not sure if it is as bad as they claim...
a. is disclosed by our partner algorithmwatch
b. the funding is not for this project
c. see https://twitter.com/OpenSchufa/status/964408780162150400
"Die SCHUFA ist die bekannteste Auskunftei & Marktführer; wir fordern in unserer Projektbeschreibung u.a.: "Die SCHUFA & andere Auskunfteien müssen öffentlich & permanent darlegen, wie ihr Score funktioniert bzw. welche Modelle/Annahmen ihm zu Grunde liegen (Nachvollziehbarkeit)"
d. read https://okfn.de/blog/2018/02/openschufa-english/#update (we already requesting infoscore Consumer Data GmbH data)
c. "The SCHUFA is the best known credit reporter & market leader. In our project description we ask: The SCHUFA & other credit bureaus must publicly and permanently explain how their score works and which models / assumptions are based on it (traceability)"
Infoscore is a <censored> company. They have a debt collection and a rating arm which are officially independent.
They also have a legal arm (Haas & Partner) in the same building (again "independent"), who collect legal fees on top of Infoscore's debt collection fees -- a practice that has been deemed illegal by several federal courts.
The legal arm is largely automated, so the "lawyer" fees are questionable.
Good luck convincing Germans to surrender their data. I would be very surprised seeing this working out.
Also, you will get data from a very skewed demographic.
AFAIR there is an upcoming EU law which requires (at least some) transparency on how scores are evaluated, in expectation of algorithms making life changing decisions. We'll see how that's panning out.
EDIT: to clarify, I'd love to see this working out. But I never would give data of this kind to an unknown organization.
