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

401–410 of 670 posts

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#401

Post by spinlock »

ajross wrote: post #192
CoachRufus87 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they won't let you unlock your credit to apply for a mortgage So how do you recover from something like that? Are you basically prevented from using credit for the rest of your life?

There are legal limits to how long the data can be stored for. (I want to say it's a federal 7 year limit, but I might be wrong and it might be state laws). Eventually it all times out and your credit resets.

That's not the issue. They are required to immediately remove incorrect information from your credit report. A freeze prevents them from reporting your credit to third parties (i.e. it prevents them from doing business). So, they hate people who freeze their credit. Their strategy seems to be to make having a credit freeze so onerous that you won't do it so they can continue to sell your information to their customers.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#402

Post by cr0sh »

g051051 wrote: post #174
simonswords82 wrote: post #158

It's always seemed odd to me that Experian and Equifax have the upside of being both arbitrarily in charge of so much data and wield ridiculous power, and yet somehow they're still largely independent and profit making. I'll watch the outcome of this breach with interest. It strikes me that at the very least credit rating agencies should be non-profit and very closely monitored by government. This will include ensuri…

You're what's called a "consumer", as in "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau". You're only a "customer" of Equifax if you purchase one of their products. The CRAs don't make or break your credit history, that's the businesses that supply information to them. The CRAs are aggregators, and just report what their members tell them.

I don't think you're even a consumer.

You are the product.

The sell this "information" (your identity and more) between businesses looking to establish whether to give you credit or whatnot.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#403

Post by cwkoss »

privaroonie wrote: post #291

Yeah, I would think so. So far, we've learned that they've exposed virtually everyone's data through their incompetence (thus exposing nearly every adult in the US to a high risk of identity fraud), sold stock to avoid personal financial losses before the news broke, and set up a scam site to trick people into giving up their right to sue. If this isn't criminal, then nothing is. If someone doesn't go to jail over th…

>why the hell shouldn't I just go out and commit fraud on a daily basis myself?

Because you don't have enough wealth to be immune to the legal system.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#404

Post by jack_kc »

ChrisLomont wrote: post #385
unclebucknasty wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So why can't I have a mobile app (or three) for free Yes, and I think it's a bigger question of why we have so little control over or access to our own data in the first place? It's a racket that they monetize our data by selling it to others, then charge us again to access and protect it. And, if you've ever had to go through the pain of having something corrected in a timely fashion, then you know it's doubly-mad…

>Yet, without our data, they'd have no business Yet, without credit rating agencies, you'd get no loans.

This kind of thinking is what allows these companies to get away with this kind of incompetence. Loans were given before credit rating agencies existed. This incident shows how flawed our current system is.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#405

Post by spinlock »

throwaway2048 wrote: post #24
spinlock wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO, the best outcome would be to put Equifax out of business. I have had my identity stolen and they were complicit in enabling the fraud against me. Once you tell them you're NPI has been compromised, they get incredibly passive aggressive against you and refuse to allow you to manage the situation (i.e. they won't let you unlock your credit to apply for a mortgage). In short, this breach of public "trust" is only…

I'm not so sure about that, the data they have just gets resold to some other party when they go bankrupt, possibly many other parties and shit gets worse.

There are already 3 main credit bureaus who have all of your data. It's not about the data it's about how unethical they are in preventing you from controlling the data.

Think about it: if every person in america put a freeze on their credit, all of these companies would go out of business because they would no longer have a product to sell. It gets even worse if you're a victim of identity theft because they cannot charge victims of identity theft to freeze or un-freeze a credit report.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#406

Post by mgleason_3 »

Why is there not a criminal case against these idiots? When you are controlling something dangerous and you allow that thing to harm someone else, it's a criminal offense. It's not a matter of whether it's hard. It's simply your responsibility to ensure no one gets hurt.

This company has already caused harm to literally everyone in the US. Minimally, we all now have to take action to attempt to avoid identity theft. And it only gets worse from here.

And these bastards have the chutzpah to wait until hurricane Irma is upon us to make the announcement.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#407

Post by kelnos »

Bluestrike2 wrote: post #121
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.

To be fair, class action suits aren't really about recovering damages for the class members. Or at least, not entirely. That's almost incidental. Rather, they're most often about leveraging a large class of injured parties--whose injuries are usually relatively minor on an individual basis--to force a change of behavior by adding up all of those small injuries. The cost of pursuing each claim individually would usual…

> It might seem unfair at first glance, but it enables the class to access the legal system and justice where it otherwise would not.

The fact that it requires so much expertise and money to "access the legal system" in this way is in itself incredibly unfair and unjust. It's a completely broken system.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#408

Post by wildmusings »

CoolGuySteve wrote: post #379
cletus wrote: post #340

Ok, so credit reporting agency collects sensitive personal and financial data on basically every adult American, loses it to a bunch of criminals and now I have to deal with the consequences? I looked into credit freezes yesterday. This is really a total scam. You have to _call_ each of the three agencies and pay a fee ($5 to $10) each time. If you need to unfreeze your report to make a legitimate credit application…

Corporate charters can be dissolved by the government at any time. Given Equifax ONLY deals in building detailed profiles of every US adult and managed to lose that information to criminals is grounds for terminating their corporation. At this point, their lack of basic security practices has endangered national security by weakening the banking and credit systems. On top of that, this company is massively unpopular.…

The government can't just dissolve a corporation on a whim. We have due process and the rule of law.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#409

Post by chimeracoder »

trobertson wrote: post #234
i_cant_speel wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Agreed to it under compulsion. It isn't feasible to go without a banking account / credit union account. Modern society relies on these accounts.

A) A credit account is not the same thing as a checking account or credit union account

B) Plenty of people, even in the US, operate without any of these things. It's not fun, but it's absolutely possible.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#410

Post by repple »

otp124 wrote: post #380
cbhl wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What state do you live in? Credit freeze rules vary from state to state.

Is there a wiki page or government list that describes the rules for each state?

Here's one list: http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/credit-card-free...
Post reply on HN