But digital marketers, Mr. Mierzwinski says, are able to work around the rules by using alternative financial data to calculate consumer scores.
But the reality is that consumer scoring is a rapidly growing field, with companies now scraping websites to gather profile data that is sold to third parties.
Many of the errors familiar from the 50-year history of credit reports — inaccuracy, discrimination — are compounded in the field of consumer scoring.
Online consumer scores are calculated by a handful of start-ups, as well as a few financial services stalwarts, that specialize in the flourishing field of predictive consumer analytics.
Previously, FICO had offered bilingual support to consumers contacting its call centers — say, if they had lost their online password for myFico.com and needed assistance, said Amber Minson, vice president and general manager of consumer scores at FICO.
Gordon Meyer, the chief executive of eBureau, wrote in an e-mail that the consumer scoring company "welcomes the opportunity to describe, to the F.T.C., its practices and the benefits we provide to businesses as well as consumers".
And like cable television, satellite radio, for a monthly fee, gives the consumer scores of stations and specialized programming to choose from -- bluegrass music only, for example, or just comedy.
The study also revealed that 9 of the 10 markets with the highest consumer scores are in Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa.
The credit scores -- known by the acronym FICO, derived from the company's name -- range from the 300's to the 900's, but more than two-thirds of consumers score in the 600's and 700's, Mr. Watts said.
By allowing small businesses to leverage the Internet while helping consumers score great deals, these group-couponing services have become some of the fastest-growing businesses in the world.
