Bad Debt Files Purged After Privacy Watchdog's Finding

A database used to assess people's financial histories is removing 65,000 records of bad debts that could be inaccurate, prompting calls for tighter regulation of the burgeoning credit reference industry. The credit bureau Baycorp Advantage has agreed to remove the files, which involve records from the defunct telephone company One.Tel, after the federal privacy commissioner found One.Tel's liquidator had not updated records once debts had been paid, and the defaults were questionable.