Guatemala: If you reside in the municipality of Guatemala, by law you have to pay to be registered at the municipality of the city of Guatemala. Your birth certificate, personal identity document (cedula de vecindad) and other data. It is your obligation as citizen to pay for the registration of this data and to pay to get the official documentation.
The Municipality, whom you paid to extend your legal personal documents, has sold and is selling your personal data to a private business. This private business is TransUnion. They have the rights, according to the contract to sell all your private information like birth certificate, personal identity document (cedula de vecindad) and other data to whomever they choose to sell it to.
How could that happen? Well the very smart ex-mayor of Guatemala City, Fritz Garíca-Gallont sold your souls to TransUnion in 2002. The data of 2 million 735 personal registers of Guatemalans, or more, are in the hands of TransUnion, and they own the information and can do with it whatever they want.
So don't be surprised if the Russian Mafia, posing as a legitimate business, has acquired your data, or the Chinese Government or the CIA, or any business who wants your information to do what is in their interest, not in yours.
You paid to be registered by The Municipality of Guatemala, as is your legal obligation. Now the Municipality of Guatemala is selling your information to TransUnion. Good business for the Municipality and you didn't even know about it. They did not ask your permission to sell your personal information.
They will know where you live, your exact address, your complete name, your birthdates and place of birth, the names of your parents, your children, your divorce, and other information.
Fritz García-Gallont, when consulted about this situation, says he doesn't really remember this transaction. One of the infamous FIDEICOMISOS "Apoyo a la Plannificación Urbana" - Support for Urban Planning, that our municipality has so many of, because they are so convenient, was used to the deal with TransUnion.
As you know, these Fideicomisos can't be audited like regular official budget items.
Best of all, TransUnion has a contract for 10 years, if the municipality wants' to cancel the contract before the 10 year period, you, the tax-payer has to pay indemnization to TransUnion.
All parties involved have either amnesia (Garía-Gallont), or they can't speak about the issue - not the representatives of TransUnion in Guatemala, General Manager Enio Lopez and Operations Manager, Rolando de Paz. Gustavo Zachrisson, a shareholder of TransUnion, who signed the contract with the Municipality of Guatemala, explained that he can not give any information; he has to ask for permission first.
When nobody remembers, or nobody wants to talk, you can be sure that there is a gigantic rat in the closet.
The selling of personal information is one of the biggest businesses worldwide, and guess who now owns a big chunk of that business in Guatemala.
The irony of this situation is not only the vulnerability you face because your private information is in hands of a business who can sell it to whomever they choose, it is also that other governmental entities like RENAP, Registro Nacional de Personal - National Register of persons, can not access the information of TransUnion, they have to pay for it, or re-digit it at a very high cost to you, the tax payer.
This is no the end of this lucrative contract between Trans Union and the Municipality of Guatemala. The contract establishes that, after 16 months until the end of the contract, TransUnion has the right to obtain half of the net income generated by the online information requests by third parties, and has the obligation to share half of that net income with the Municipality of Guatemala.
We ask: Is this legal? Can the Municipality of Guatemala City do this?
We ask: Who controls what happens to this source of income to the Municipality of Guatemala City?
We ask: Does the Municipality of Guatemala City have the legal right to sell your private information?
We ask: Who protects the citizens of Guatemala City of the damages they can suffer because their private information is for sale?
We ask: Do we have any rights as citizens of this city?
We ask: Who has the guts to sue the Municipality of Guatemala?
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