I'd love, love, love to finally see a company earnestly held responsible for their negligent security practices but I have no hope. Doubly so with this administration. Equifax getting run into the ground would help a president.
Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack
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Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack
#92I'd love to see the $70B number pan out (though $500 per person is less than the damages, I think) -- Equifax is a $17B company, and would presumably stop existing if that happened. On the other hand, these things always settle out of court, and Equifax certainly won't settle the suit for more than they're worth. I said it elsewhere, but I think the right response is to opt out of the class, and sue for $1000 in smal…
This class action will likely be settled in the same way the Ticketmaster case was settled ... with a coupon book good for 2 free credit reports.
Is that what the lawyers received for taking the Ticketmaster case?
Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack
#93I'm not excited about this class action; If they win, the individual payout will be almost nothing ($10?). The lawyers are the only ones who will really "make out" with 10's of millions in fees. There is also a disproportionate effect in that a small portion of the 143 million affected will have a large impact, i.e., "identity theft" while most will be unaffected. I think a fund setup to help those who are directly a…
I don't really care where the money goes. I think that having one catastrophic event (huge lawsuits or fines leading to bankruptcy) for a corporate entity because of negligent security measures may lead other board rooms to move security measures up their priority list.
Could lead to actual legislation which IMO is needed. If companies like this fail miserably to protect data it's a sign something bigger is needed and missing. It's like the how Aurthur Andersen represented how accounting firms should not act, and failed miserably.
Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack
#94I'd love to see the $70B number pan out (though $500 per person is less than the damages, I think) -- Equifax is a $17B company, and would presumably stop existing if that happened. On the other hand, these things always settle out of court, and Equifax certainly won't settle the suit for more than they're worth. I said it elsewhere, but I think the right response is to opt out of the class, and sue for $1000 in smal…
If they are out of business, they sell their assets which are office chairs, fax machines, and a giant database with information on everybody. Are you not worried about the sale of that data?
Their business revolves around selling access to that database. So no, not worried about them selling data that they already sell. Very annoyed that they exist to collect & sell the data, of course.
Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack
#95I'd love to see the $70B number pan out (though $500 per person is less than the damages, I think) -- Equifax is a $17B company, and would presumably stop existing if that happened. On the other hand, these things always settle out of court, and Equifax certainly won't settle the suit for more than they're worth. I said it elsewhere, but I think the right response is to opt out of the class, and sue for $1000 in smal…
Could we create a service that automates most of the work required to sue in SCC?
Am an attorney.
You could create a system that'd help you file SCC complaints quickly, but to have it detailed enough to pass the defendant lawyer's complaints about the deficiencies in your documents would be difficult.
The size of that problem, however, decreases with the narrowness of the subject matter you want to cover/make claims about. If it were a 'Sue Equifax For The 2017 Data Breach' service, then it might work (the whole point about class actions being that they're similar - commonality, typicality etc - enough)
Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack
#96I'd love to see the $70B number pan out (though $500 per person is less than the damages, I think) -- Equifax is a $17B company, and would presumably stop existing if that happened. On the other hand, these things always settle out of court, and Equifax certainly won't settle the suit for more than they're worth. I said it elsewhere, but I think the right response is to opt out of the class, and sue for $1000 in smal…
This class action will likely be settled in the same way the Ticketmaster case was settled ... with a coupon book good for 2 free credit reports.
Probably for good reason. $500 per class member is an insanely high damages estimate. 99.9% of people will suffer zero damages because their identities will not be stolen. Even the ones who do have their identities stolen will likely be made whole by the credit card companies.
The real damages here are going to be to the banks and credit card companies that will have to absorb the costs of all the fraud.
As to the Ticket Master case, you can read the complaint yourself and see if $5 or so per class member settlement value was reasonable: http://www.ticketfeelitigation.com/docs/Fourth_Amended_Compl.... The theory was that TicketMaster didn't disclose that it was marking up fees for things like UPS delivery and order processing, and that if customers had known they wouldn't have ordered the tickets. That's a weak damages theory, because customers don't care about line items they care about the bottom line. Either they'll pay $X for the tickets or they won't. Unsurprisingly, that weak damages theory lead to a small per-class-member settlement.
Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack
#97Consider the possibility that the hackers were agents of a sovereign power, such as one who has been hurt by economic sanctions and has a history of cyber warfare. This state could decide to respond to US economic aggression by using the compromised information of hundreds of millions of Americans to engage in fraudulent activity.
This event is leading me to about how social security numbers can no longer serve the role that they have with establishing trust in identity, although they can continue to be used to uniquely identify a US citizen. This hack may push markets, and government, to widely adopt biometrics and other sensitive, personally identifiable information.
What won't happen, unfortunately, is the political will to regulate how uniquely identifiable personal information is managed and stored.
Suppose that rather than Equifax, Facebook were hacked. What kind of intelligence and reports does Facebook have on people that would eclipse that of social security numbers and credit history?
Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack
#98NYS Attorney General on the arbitration/rights waiver clause: "This language is unacceptable and unenforceable. My staff has already contacted @Equifax to demand that they remove it." https://twitter.com/AGSchneiderman/status/906195350532304896 Also: "I am launching a formal investigation into the #Equifax breach. Today, I sent a letter to @Equifax seeking additional information." https://twitter.com/AGSchneiderman/s…
Yeah, I'm not sure the arbitration language is applicable here anyway. The claims would arise from Experian's failure to secure their data, not from use of the "Products" offered by TrustedID (namely, the website allowing me to check) or the subject matter of the Terms of Use agreement.
Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack
#99I'd love to see the $70B number pan out (though $500 per person is less than the damages, I think) -- Equifax is a $17B company, and would presumably stop existing if that happened. On the other hand, these things always settle out of court, and Equifax certainly won't settle the suit for more than they're worth. I said it elsewhere, but I think the right response is to opt out of the class, and sue for $1000 in smal…
This class action will likely be settled in the same way the Ticketmaster case was settled ... with a coupon book good for 2 free credit reports.
One scenario would be SSN being massively used by pirates, so companies would stop trusting SSN altogether. Let's hope a startup creates a "proof of identity" service with a photo ID with a chip, a code, and an online certificate for tax purpose.
Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
This class action will likely be settled in the same way the Ticketmaster case was settled ... with a coupon book good for 2 free credit reports.
Probably for good reason. $500 per class member is an insanely high damages estimate. 99.9% of people will suffer zero damages because their identities will not be stolen. Even the ones who do have their identities stolen will likely be made whole by the credit card companies. The real damages here are going to be to the banks and credit card companies that will have to absorb the costs of all the fraud. As to the Ti…
All of the identities have been stolen. It’s a matter of whether they’re used at this point.