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Experian's Tech Chief Defends Credit Scores: 'We're Not Palantir' (theverge.com)

(Wednesday January 28, 2026 @05:40PM (msmash) from the low-bar-for-likeability dept.)


When asked directly whether people actually like Experian, Alex Lintner, the credit bureau's CEO of Software and Technology, [1]offered an unusual defense in an interview : "First of all, we're not Palantir, so we don't do reputation scores." Speaking on The Verge's podcast, Lintner conceded that consumers who have poor credit scores through "life's circumstances" sometimes direct their frustration at Experian, though he argued the company enables vital access to credit for 247 million Americans.

The 10-year company veteran said Experian has built its own large language model and about 200 AI agents for internal use, but consumer data remains entirely walled off from public AI systems. On security, Lintner said Experian hasn't experienced a data breach in a decade -- the last occurred two weeks into his tenure. When competitor Equifax suffered its massive breach, Equifax actually paid Experian to help protect affected consumers' identities.



[1] https://www.theverge.com/podcast/866751/experian-ceo-alex-lintner-credit-scores-ai-privacy-interview


We're absolutely not Palantir (Score:2)

by Krishnoid ( 984597 )

"I mean, I have a spreadsheet right here with multiple line items showing how much income we recognize from Palantir for our data."

act your credit rating, not your shoe width (Score:4, Insightful)

by Pseudonymous Powers ( 4097097 )

First off, "credit" and "reputation" are synonyms.

I froze my credit some time ago, which required me registering with Experian. They still send me emails when my credit goes up and back down. Or down and back up. I phrase it thusly because it never does one without doing the other a couple days later. Great service I didn't ask for, guys.

I mean, credit rating agencies are fine, I guess. I just don't think that, if you volunteer to make a business out of rating people according to their trustworthiness, and you accomplish that rating by getting their creditors to send you all their personal private business every time they buy gas or eat dinner, you should expect not to be kind of disliked. Because that's not a thing that likable people do!

Re: (Score:2)

by Echoez ( 562950 ) *

I agree. They should just own the fact that they 1) provide a valuable service in measuring people's credit scores and 2) they won't be liked for it. Especially by those who have bad credit scores.

If there are legitimate issues where people should actually have higher credit scores than they do, then that should be investigated and resolved. If people are just upset that they screwed up their credit scores and don't like the repercussions? I'm not sure there's much that can be done.

Re: (Score:2)

by dargaud ( 518470 )

I could never get over the fact that if you've never borrow money and never used a credit card, you have a shit credit score...!?! It should be a perfect credit score instead ! I borrowed money for the 1st time when I was 35 and I had only ever used debit cards before and I couldn't find anything better than a 17% rate loan. What a fucking ripoff.

Re:act your credit rating, not your shoe width (Score:4, Insightful)

by DarkOx ( 621550 )

because you don't understand what a credit score is.

It isn't an evaluation of your balance sheet and ability to pay, it is about how likely you are to pay. That logically must include your historic behaviors and other factors like how long you have lived in a current place etc.

Re: (Score:2)

by geekmux ( 1040042 )

> because you don't understand what a credit score is.

> It isn't an evaluation of your balance sheet and ability to pay, it is about how likely you are to pay. That logically must include your historic behaviors and other factors like how long you have lived in a current place etc.

When society happily approves the 18-year old shit-credit teenager to after-finance a pizza order along with a $50,000 car loan at 18% interest, I'm not sure even Experian understands what a credit score is for anymore. Or more importantly when they should have been saying FUCK NO with regards to extending credit.

All they care about is working with banks to make a metric fuckton of money off interest. I find them no less culpable than the ratings agencies on Wall Street in 2008. Forget 18-year old spendi

Re: (Score:2)

by Pascoea ( 968200 )

I mean, it's certainly a wild concept, but it makes sense when you think about it. You have very little/no documented history of paying creditors. As a lender I really don't care if you have $100k in your bank if you have a habit of stiffing people, or at least having no proof to the contrary.

You know as slogans go (Score:2)

by rsilvergun ( 571051 )

We're not the most evil privacy invading company on the planet is sure one of them.

Re: You know as slogans go (Score:1)

by homerbrew ( 10094532 )

Perhaps they would be better liked if they didnâ(TM)t create a system in which scammers can ruin your credit rating and the creator of that same system does nothing to actually helpâ¦

Shooting the messenger (Score:5, Informative)

by Tony Isaac ( 1301187 )

> Lintner conceded that consumers who have poor credit scores through "life's circumstances" sometimes direct their frustration at Experian

People who have poor credit scores through "life's circumstances" probably *are* more likely to be unable to make required payments on time. Experian didn't cause this, and their scores didn't cause this. Their scores simply help lenders evaluate how likely it is that a person will default.

Maybe it doesn't feel fair for someone's credit score to take a hit because they get hit with a big, unexpected expense. The thing is, life did that to them, not Experian or its scores.

However, *most* people with low credit scores, actually *do* have problems managing their money. I see this in my own two sons, one of whom manages his money very well, the other does not.

Re: (Score:2)

by Gravis Zero ( 934156 )

> People who have poor credit scores through "life's circumstances"

What if my "life's circumstances" are all my personal info got stolen from Experian and then thoroughly trashed my credit?

Experian is one messenger that should be shot for criminal negligence.

Re: (Score:3)

by Tony Isaac ( 1301187 )

I would say that the thief is the perpetrator, not Experian. If Experian was negligent, then they would indeed share in the blame. Negligence is not being alleged in this article.

Credit scores are a good thing (Score:3)

by Mononymous ( 6156676 )

Of course bad credit risks get mad at the credit rating agencies for telling lenders that.

It's because of these agencies that lenders have access to the information to make lending decisions, and good credit risks can get loans with favorable terms.

remember... (Score:3)

by k3v0 ( 592611 )

credit existed before credit scores did, and could easily exist without credit scores and credit score companies

Re: (Score:2)

by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

> credit existed before credit scores did, and could easily exist without credit scores and credit score companies

Yes, and it was highly local and often limited.

Your grocer might extend you a tab, but only because they see you come in buying groceries every Monday for a while that they know what you want. Eventually they'll trust you enough to extend you credit. But this only worked when your circle of commerce was the town and you knew the store owner's name. The whole "small town" thing and "everyone knows

Sorry, no. (Score:2)

by Flexagon ( 740643 )

Sorry, no amount of worthwhile value for credit reports justifies what Experian has done and still does. The [1]Wikipedia article [wikipedia.org] is full of their breaches and shenanigans. They have an ongoing pattern of sloppiness. Until they (along with the other reporting services) were forced to stop by legislattion, they charged us for credit reports based on our own data that they had hoovered up.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experian#Data_breaches

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