public credit-scoring and analytics company
FICO
Industry Finance
A public analytics company best known for FICO credit scores used in lending and other financial decisions. FICO scores low because a privately owned scoring infrastructure shapes access to credit, housing, and insurance while ordinary people have little direct power over the model.
Why this matters: Credit scores are not optional consumer products; they are private rule systems attached to basic life chances.
Letter grade D Extractive High confidence (AI) Rubric gcd-rubric-v1
* Tentative scaffolding score. Not human-checked or final.
Request verification to have the evidence record checked against primary materials and organization-supplied documents. Verification does not buy a higher score; scores change only when review finds factual errors, omissions, or miscalibration.
Evaluation Overview
D - Extractive
The score turns mainly on Scale Integrity, with the largest penalty coming from Policy Capture.
Strengths
- Scale Integrity4/5
- Extraction2/10
- Labor Sovereignty2/7
Penalties
- Policy Capture-3
- Surveillance Capture-3
- Accountability Opacity-2
- Identity Capture-2
Evidence state
- ConfidenceHigh confidence (AI)
- ThoroughnessDeveloped (AI)
- Linked claims15
- Direct axis claims15
- Coverage15/15
Scoring Axes
| Axis | Score | Why this score |
|---|---|---|
Ownership
?
Control rights: shareholder-dominated at 0, worker cooperative control
at 10.
|
1 / 10 |
FICO's public record identifies its ownership form, institutional type, or public/private/nonprofit/cooperative structure in the finance category. Linked evidence
|
Governance
?
Binding decision authority: centralized control at 0, democratic
stakeholder control at 10.
|
1 / 10 |
FICO's public record indicates whether binding control sits with shareholders, executives, members, public officials, nonprofit boards, residents, patients, or customers. Linked evidence
|
Extraction
?
Surplus allocation, wage share, CEO pay ratio, margins, and structured
extraction judgment.
|
2 / 10 |
FICO's model determines whether money flows primarily to investors and owners or back toward users, members, public value, community services, affordability, or mission delivery. Linked evidence
|
Labor Sovereignty
?
Worker power: coercive conditions at 0, co-determination or ownership at
7. Employee dissatisfaction matters only when source-backed evidence
shows concrete limits on worker agency, such as coercive scheduling,
retaliation, wage theft, harassment, unsafe conditions, suppression of
worker voice, or extreme turnover.
|
2 / 7 |
FICO's linked public materials do not show ordinary workers holding full binding democratic control over the institution. Linked evidence
|
Solidarity with the
Unemployed
?
Treatment of exits and nonworkers, including severance, redeployment,
and non-competes.
|
2 / 7 |
FICO operates in an everyday-need category where job loss, illness, rent pressure, family-care obligations, tax compliance, utility dependence, or household instability affects bargaining power. Linked evidence
|
Loss-Bearing Fidelity
?
Willingness to absorb costs to preserve values, workers, users, and
public obligations.
|
2 / 7 |
FICO's product or service can absorb real household, civic, care, housing, energy, or tax-compliance risk, but the record also shows who bears costs when the institution fails or prices rise. Linked evidence
|
Market Conduct
?
Pricing fairness, switching costs, lock-in, and rent extraction.
|
1 / 5 |
FICO operates in a market where customers, tenants, patients, taxpayers, utility users, parents, or community members often face switching costs, asymmetric information, or limited choice. Linked evidence
|
Product Integrity
?
Preservation of quality rather than degradation for monetization.
|
2 / 5 |
FICO's core service has practical everyday utility, but its integrity depends on pricing, safety, transparency, access, quality, data handling, and accountability. Linked evidence
|
Scale Integrity
?
Whether growth improves or degrades fairness and accountability.
|
4 / 5 |
FICO's scale or category makes its decisions consequential for ordinary U.S. households, patients, tenants, parents, taxpayers, utility customers, or communities. Linked evidence
|
Penalties
| Penalty | Applied | Why this penalty |
|---|---|---|
Policy Capture
?
Private-interest attempts to bend law, regulation, subsidies, taxes,
enforcement, trade, labor, safety, competition, environmental,
healthcare, housing, surveillance, civil-liberties, or consumer policy
against workers, customers, citizens, affected communities, or
ecological life. Public-interest advocacy is not penalized merely
because it is lobbying. Range: -15 to 0.
|
-3 |
FICO's public record makes Policy Capture relevant through its ownership, pricing, safety, lobbying, environmental burden, youth exposure, data practices, lock-in, public mission, or community accountability. Linked evidence
|
Subscription Capture
?
Manipulative recurring-payment, automatic-renewal,
cancellation-friction, bundling, trial-conversion, or refund designs
that profit from inertia or confusion. Range: -5 to 0.
|
-1 |
FICO's public record makes Subscription Capture relevant through its ownership, pricing, safety, lobbying, environmental burden, youth exposure, data practices, lock-in, public mission, or community accountability. Linked evidence
|
Accountability Opacity
?
Material opacity, reputation laundering, or hidden accountability
structures that prevent public accountability. Range: -2 to 0.
|
-2 |
FICO's public record makes Accountability Opacity relevant through its ownership, pricing, safety, lobbying, environmental burden, youth exposure, data practices, lock-in, public mission, or community accountability. Linked evidence
|
Identity Capture
?
Customer pressure, employee pressure, and pervasive identity saturation.
Range: -3 to 0.
|
-2 |
FICO's public record makes Identity Capture relevant through its ownership, pricing, safety, lobbying, environmental burden, youth exposure, data practices, lock-in, public mission, or community accountability. Linked evidence
|
Surveillance Capture
?
Invasive surveillance, unreasonably non-optional tracking, facial
recognition, biometric identification, or AI behavior scanning of
customers, workers, bystanders, or the public. Range: -5 to 0.
|
-3 |
FICO's public record makes Surveillance Capture relevant through its ownership, pricing, safety, lobbying, environmental burden, youth exposure, data practices, lock-in, public mission, or community accountability. Linked evidence
|
Ideological Disavowal
?
Concealed ideology presented as neutrality, expertise, professional
necessity, public-service administration, market inevitability, or
non-ideological common sense while exercising power. Range: -3 to 0.
|
-2 |
FICO's public record makes Ideological Disavowal relevant through its ownership, pricing, safety, lobbying, environmental burden, youth exposure, data practices, lock-in, public mission, or community accountability. Linked evidence
|
Bonus Credits
No bonus credits applied in this version.
Confidence Basis
Confidence Basis
Confidence is computed from the evidence trail and review state, not typed into the profile by hand.
High 80/100
15 verified linked claims 15 direct axis claims 0 disputed claims 15/15 components covered
This confidence label measures the source-backed evidence trail. AI-scaffolded scores remain tentative until human review.
Claim confidence 16/20
15 verified linked claims
Source quality 11/18
Best source per verified claim, weighted by institutional reliability
Direct axis-specific claims 14/18
15 direct claims across 15 active components
Dispute load 12/12
0 disputed claims on this entity
Recency 10/10
Newest accepted timestamp: May 13, 2026
Reviewer status 7/12
Human-reviewed components score higher than AI scaffolding
Component coverage 10/10
15/15 evidence-bearing components have direct support
Evidence State
Evidence State
Claims and Sources
Claims are the evidence record. Each claim needs a source link, axis category, status, confidence level, and timestamp before it can support a score.
* Tentative scaffolding score. Not human-checked or final.1FICO's public record identifies its ownership form, institutional type, or public/private/nonprofit/cooperative structure in the finance category.
- FICO investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
2FICO's public record indicates whether binding control sits with shareholders, executives, members, public officials, nonprofit boards, residents, patients, or customers.
- FICO investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
3FICO's model determines whether money flows primarily to investors and owners or back toward users, members, public value, community services, affordability, or mission delivery.
- FICO investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
4FICO's public materials do not show ordinary workers holding full binding democratic control over the institution.
- FICO investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
5FICO operates in an everyday-need category where job loss, illness, rent pressure, family-care obligations, tax compliance, utility dependence, or household instability affects bargaining power.
- myFICO credit educationGeneral web source · 58%
6FICO's product or service can absorb real household, civic, care, housing, energy, or tax-compliance risk, but the record also shows who bears costs when the institution fails or prices rise.
- FICO investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
7FICO operates in a market where customers, tenants, patients, taxpayers, utility users, parents, or community members often face switching costs, asymmetric information, or limited choice.
- myFICO credit educationGeneral web source · 58%
8FICO's core service has practical everyday utility, but its integrity depends on pricing, safety, transparency, access, quality, data handling, and accountability.
- FICO investor relationsOfficial self-description · 68%
9FICO's scale or category makes its decisions consequential for ordinary U.S. households, patients, tenants, parents, taxpayers, utility customers, or communities.
- myFICO credit educationGeneral web source · 58%
10FICO's public record makes Policy Capture relevant through its ownership, pricing, safety, lobbying, environmental burden, youth exposure, data practices, lock-in, public mission, or community accountability.
- myFICO credit educationGeneral web source · 58%
11FICO's public record makes Subscription Capture relevant through its ownership, pricing, safety, lobbying, environmental burden, youth exposure, data practices, lock-in, public mission, or community accountability.
- myFICO credit educationGeneral web source · 58%
12FICO's public record makes Accountability Opacity relevant through its ownership, pricing, safety, lobbying, environmental burden, youth exposure, data practices, lock-in, public mission, or community accountability.
- myFICO credit educationGeneral web source · 58%
13FICO's public record makes Identity Capture relevant through its ownership, pricing, safety, lobbying, environmental burden, youth exposure, data practices, lock-in, public mission, or community accountability.
- myFICO credit educationGeneral web source · 58%
14FICO's public record makes Surveillance Capture relevant through its ownership, pricing, safety, lobbying, environmental burden, youth exposure, data practices, lock-in, public mission, or community accountability.
- myFICO credit educationGeneral web source · 58%
15FICO's public record makes Ideological Disavowal relevant through its ownership, pricing, safety, lobbying, environmental burden, youth exposure, data practices, lock-in, public mission, or community accountability.
- myFICO credit educationGeneral web source · 58%
Help Improve This Profile
Submit source-backed evidence or challenge a specific claim, source, axis value, or calculation below.
How This Page Is Maintained
Evidence comes in through contributors, is checked by verifiers, and is synthesized by reviewers. Founder authority remains narrow and visible; scores recalculate when verified claims or the rubric change.
Civic Note
Incorporation, limited liability, market access, and other institutional privileges are public grants. Good Companies Directory treats those privileges as conditional on accountability to workers, users, communities, and the public.
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Audit Log
Recent public changes for this company or group. The full audit log is part of the Transparency record.
No company-specific audit entries have been published yet.
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