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Forewarn gives realtors access to buyers' histories with a phone number


When Florida real estate professional Susan Hicks discovered the app Forewarn over a year ago, she was shocked to learn that for a service costing about $20 a month she could instantaneously retrieve detailed data on prospective clients with only their phone number.

When Florida real estate professional Susan Hicks discovered the app Forewarn over a year ago, she was shocked to learn that for a service costing about $20 a month she could instantly retrieve detailed data on prospective clients with only their phone number. As Forewarn continues to penetrate the real estate industry, one of the biggest questions for the company is whether it will be able to evade scrutiny and pushback by privacy advocates who say it is essentially mass profiling renters and potential homebuyers in silence, as well as regulators who have cracked down on similar practices. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has brought cases against companies for operating as consumer reporting agencies but failing to follow FCRA law, a spokesperson said, pointing to its $5.8 million September settlement with TruthFinder/Instant Checkmate.

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