On Comsumerist, this morning is a link to get a free FICO score.  I took a look at the link and wanted to share a bit of myFICO’s User Agreement I found particularly interesting:

“Even if you choose to opt out of permitting us to disclose your personal information to third parties, you consent to the free and unrestricted exchange of information, including your credit report, among the Providers [’Fair Isaac in conjunction with TransUnion Consumer Solutions LLC (TCS), a wholly owned subsidiary of TransUnion, LLC and with the assistance of third parties, such as Equifax, Inc., that provide related services or from which we obtain your credit report (collectively the “Providers”)’] for the purpose of verifying your identity, updating TransUnion LLC’s consumer credit database, and providing your FICO®-Scored TransUnion Credit Profile to you.”

The way I read this, even if you actually take the time and considerable effort to opt-out, you’re still not really opting out.  The various credit bureaus and their information providers (e.g. Choicepoint) will still be trading the information you provide to get the report to update their databases.  It’s not like you explicitly give permission for them to do this anyway, but I still find this galling.  I guess it’s true - nothing is free.