Equifax Consumer Protection and Data Empowerment Act of 2018

This bill amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act to revise the consumer protection duties of consumer reporting agencies.

Credit reporting agencies must provide a cost-free method for consumers to control the release of their information for certain purposes.

The bill limits the purposes for which a consumer reporting agencies may provide a consumer's information to a third party. For example, consumer reporting agencies may not provide consumer information to a third party for a credit or insurance transaction not initiated by the consumer.

The bill revises the requirements for fraud alerts provided by consumer reporting agencies, including by extending the length of all alerts to 10 years and expanding access to free reports.