It is evident that security is an inalienable requirement for the development of any economic activity, the progress of the communities, and the fulfillment of the common good.

In our field, security means to know the commercial history of those who decide to carry out a business transaction. That knowledge involves the search and acquisition of essential information.

The National Constitution of Argentina in its article 14 recognizes to all the inhabitants of the country the right to exercise any licit activity and trade according to the corresponding law in force. The activity concerning commercial information databases is intended to satisfy an individual and social need, and is overtly accepted in the article 43, third paragraph, of the Magna Carta.

Habeas Data is aimed to encourage and avoid objecting the activity carried out by our sector.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in its article 19, provides that every individual has the right to freedom of expression and that this right includes seeking, receiving and imparting information through any media and regardless of frontiers. Regarding our particular case, this means the recognition of the rights expressed in the previous paragraph. The same is stated in the article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights.

The achievement of the highest transparency of information for the purpose of distinguishing debtors according to how they honor their commercial obligations is an activity of public interest, as set out in several instances of the national and international case law.

An excessively harsh law jeopardizes the principle of transparency of information that rests precisely in the right to information. The unwanted effect would be a more difficult access to credit, which consequently has a detrimental effect to the citizen that nowadays can access to credit just with his ID, his pay stub, and his own good credit history. We must avoid that he unjustly ends up paying higher interest rates because of the increasing arrears as a result of lack of information.

As we said before, credit creates commercial and productive activities, as well as boosts the development of economy, thus benefiting the individuals and the community as a whole.

Consequently, the extent of credit depends on the existence of methods that facilitate the development of a culture which respects the tradition of individuals’ good payment behavior.