Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 670 posts

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#231

Post by dsfyu404ed »

apayan wrote: post #189
pc86 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you sue a corporation, who do you expect to defend it? It will be an attorney.

I don't know about other states, but in California if you sue a corporation in small claims court, they can NOT send an attorney: Corporation or other legal entity — A corporation or other legal entity (that is not a natural person) can be represented by a regular employee, an officer, or a director; a partnership can be represented by a partner or regular employee of the partnership. The representative may not be an…

So they find someone to send who isn't a lawyer but has a lot of experience in that area of law and is coached by a lawyer.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#232

Post by schiffern »

i_cant_speel wrote: post #195
hueving wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't make you a user. It just means the bank gave them your info.

After you made the choice to allow them to.

A choice made under duress of not having access to a bank account or credit (which makes someone a de-facto persona non grata in the modern world).

Monopolies aren't choices, and monopolies on essential services are coercive by definition.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#233

Post by HillaryBriss »

dbatten wrote: post #224
billh wrote: post #66

Earlier 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.

You mean, with a coupon book good for 2 free credit reports... except with ridiculous fine print that will prevent 99% of people from using said coupons...

... 2 free credit reports with the purchase of 3 or more credit reports at the usual price

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#234

Post by trobertson »

i_cant_speel wrote: post #195
hueving wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't make you a user. It just means the bank gave them your info.

After you made the choice to allow them to.

Agreed to it under compulsion. It isn't feasible to go without a banking account / credit union account. Modern society relies on these accounts. And all of these accounts have these reporting measures in their legalese. There is no option to not agree to it.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#236

Post by symlinkk »

hbosch wrote: post #147
symlinkk wrote: post #136

This is probably a dumb question but how does Equifax, TransUnion, etc actually get the credit info in the first place? If I wanted to start a credit monitoring company, could I do it?

Your bank gives it to them.

how does the bank decide which credit reporting firm to give them to? in other words, if I made an Equifax competitor, how would I convince banks to give me this info?

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#237

Post by andrewla »

rconti wrote: post #211
Prego wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are no "punitive damages" in U.S. Small Claims Courts. Only "actual" (out of pocket) damages.

Sort of / not really. I guess treble damages are not called "punitive" but they're also not "actual". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treble_damages

The GP was talking about Small Claims specifically -- I don't see anything on the linked page that refutes that. In fact, it seems like this applies very narrowly and only where specified by statute.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#238

Post by dsfyu404ed »

kelvintran wrote: post #95
mlrtime wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

If you already have to enter your name/ssn/dob/address 3x for the credit freezes a 4th time to generate the paperwork for a small claims case isn't much extra work

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#239

Post by KGIII »

jlarocco wrote: post #181
thaumaturgy wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even the ones who do have their identities stolen will likely be made whole by the credit card companies. Are credit card companies now in the habit of reimbursing consumers for the considerable time and headache required to sort out fraudulent charges caused by insecure data storage practices in the credit reporting agencies that the credit card companies contract with? There are numerous reports of identity fraud…

> Are credit card companies now in the habit of reimbursing consumers for the considerable time and headache required to sort out fraudulent charges caused by insecure data storage practices in the credit reporting agencies that the credit card companies contract with? It's not a "habit", it's the law. It doesn't matter how the fraudulent charges came to be. If a person disputes a charge and has evidence to show it's…

Time. I'm pretty old, retired, and have a few bucks. Time is my most precious commodity, and I prefer to give it to those who deserve it.

I'm not sure how much I'd want someone to pay me for an hour of my time. Clearing up identity theft can take many hours. Those are hours I can spend bugging the missus, or even bugging you folks.

I am clearly not to blame for their data exfiltration. Who is going to pay me for my time? What is my time worth to them?

This is all theoretical. My credit has been frozen for a long time. It has been that way since the OPM hack. However, for the sake of expression, I point out that my time is pretty valuable to me. Those who steal my time are worse than those who would steal my property. I can insure my property, I can not replace my time.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#240

Post by mmagin »

3JPLW wrote: post #168
ineptech wrote: post #150

Is it time for a Federal Department of Verifying Whether People Are Who They Say They Are? Veryifying identity with SSN is broken. The right way is probably more or less how big webapps do it - MFA + a password that the user can reset by providing a bunch of info. The government has the necessary private info to do this in most cases (e.g. DL# plus your income from last year's taxes), and can fall back to "Show up at…

USPS is a good contender for identity validation, too.

USPS is no longer really part of the federal government.
Post reply on HN