Equifax was founded as retail credit company in 1899. The company grew quickly and by 1920 had offices throughout the United States and Canada. its headquarters is in Atlanta, Georgia, by the 1960s retail credit company was one of the nation's largest credit bureaus, holding files on millions of American and Canadian citizens. Retail credit company's extensive information holdings and its willingness to sell them to anyone attracted criticism of the company in the 1960s and 70s. These included that a collected and I quote, fact statistics inaccurate season rumors about virtually every phase of a person's life, his marital troubles, jobs, school history, childhood sex life, political activities, and quote. The company was also alleged to reward employees for collecting negative information on consumers as a result When the company moved to computerize its Records, which would lead to much wider availability of the personal information that held the US Congress held hearings in 1970.

These led to the advancement of the Fair Credit Reporting Act in the same year, which gave consumers rights regarding information stored about them in corporate database. It is alleged that the hearings prompted the retail credit company to change his name to Equifax in 1975 to improve its image. The company has been fined by the Federal Trade Commission on many occasions for violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act.