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No matter what, Equifax may tell you you’ve been impacted by the hack

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Re: No matter what, Equifax may tell you you’ve been impacted by the hack

#11

Post by MichaelBurge »

calvinbhai wrote: post #6

So, this basically is a way for Equifax to get a mass waiver from people to make a class action lawsuit less damaging to the company. Opting out of the waiver is a long winded process of mailing a form. another funny thing is that if you sign up for their crappy product, you have to come back on a different day and complete the sign up. There wont be emails or notifications. If you forget to signup, then you have bas…

> For every SSN entered, Equifax can say in a class action lawsuit that they have waivers from all the following SSNs ....

Equifax themselves have said they'll only use the waiver with respect to the credit monitoring service, and not to the security breach:

https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/08/equifax-says-it-wont-bar-c...

You could say, "Maybe they're lying", but it seems like it would be pretty easy for the class action attorneys to act on your behalf here.

Re: No matter what, Equifax may tell you you’ve been impacted by the hack

#12

Post by paulgb »

calvinbhai wrote: post #6

So, this basically is a way for Equifax to get a mass waiver from people to make a class action lawsuit less damaging to the company. Opting out of the waiver is a long winded process of mailing a form. another funny thing is that if you sign up for their crappy product, you have to come back on a different day and complete the sign up. There wont be emails or notifications. If you forget to signup, then you have bas…

> Opting out of the waiver is a long winded process of mailing a form.

I freaking hate tactics like this, so I am offering to go through the mailing process for anyone who fills out the form at https://unarbitrate.org/. I'll pay to mail it, just because I hate this sort of thing. If you don't trust me with your data, the site also provides a way to print it and mail it yourself. But whatever it takes, I encourage everyone to opt out of this; you have nothing to gain by giving up these rights.

(I've submitted it to HN as well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15207151)

Re: No matter what, Equifax may tell you you’ve been impacted by the hack

#13

Post by fastball »

This isn't a very rigorous test, and TC's assertion that this may be random is probably untrue given that the results seem to be consistent if you enter the same details multiple times. The idea that Equifax has implemented a random yet deterministic checking system seems beyond the pail of belief.

If I had to guess, I would say that Equifax is not checking against a list of people that they know are compromised, but rather against a list that they know have NOT been compromised. So if you check a name, and it is in Equifax's database AND it is known to be uncompromised, you get back a "you are safe message". For everyone else they give a generic "you maybe were effected", emphasis on the "maybe".

Obviously a fictional person with fictional details is not going to be in Equifax's database, so they would just throw the generic maybe message.

Re: No matter what, Equifax may tell you you’ve been impacted by the hack

#14

Post by nateweiss »

paulgb wrote: post #12
calvinbhai wrote: post #6

So, this basically is a way for Equifax to get a mass waiver from people to make a class action lawsuit less damaging to the company. Opting out of the waiver is a long winded process of mailing a form. another funny thing is that if you sign up for their crappy product, you have to come back on a different day and complete the sign up. There wont be emails or notifications. If you forget to signup, then you have bas…

> Opting out of the waiver is a long winded process of mailing a form. I freaking hate tactics like this, so I am offering to go through the mailing process for anyone who fills out the form at https://unarbitrate.org/ . I'll pay to mail it, just because I hate this sort of thing. If you don't trust me with your data, the site also provides a way to print it and mail it yourself. But whatever it takes, I encourage ev…

Let me know if you'd like a contribution to cover postage for people.

Re: No matter what, Equifax may tell you you’ve been impacted by the hack

#18

Post by lisper »

hellofunk wrote: post #10
calvinbhai wrote: post #6

So, this basically is a way for Equifax to get a mass waiver from people to make a class action lawsuit less damaging to the company. Opting out of the waiver is a long winded process of mailing a form. another funny thing is that if you sign up for their crappy product, you have to come back on a different day and complete the sign up. There wont be emails or notifications. If you forget to signup, then you have bas…

Are you saying that merely by seeing if you were impacted, you are waiving your rights, even if you don't come back on the scheduled day to complete the enrollment? That sounds ridiculous. Nowhere in the simple form that they provided is there any mention of waiving any rights. Nor is there one of those standard checkboxes about "I accept the terms.." when filling out that little form.

Not quite. They tell you you're impacted, then "helpfully" offer to sign you up for a service that will (supposedly) help to mitigate the damage. Buried in the TOS for that service is a clause that you give up your right to sue.

It's a textbook scam.

Re: No matter what, Equifax may tell you you’ve been impacted by the hack

#19

Post by paulgb »

nateweiss wrote: post #14
paulgb wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Opting out of the waiver is a long winded process of mailing a form. I freaking hate tactics like this, so I am offering to go through the mailing process for anyone who fills out the form at https://unarbitrate.org/ . I'll pay to mail it, just because I hate this sort of thing. If you don't trust me with your data, the site also provides a way to print it and mail it yourself. But whatever it takes, I encourage ev…

Let me know if you'd like a contribution to cover postage for people.

Thanks, I appreciate the support! I'll let you know if it comes to that; so far I have some money set aside and I should be able to keep costs under control by bundling them into one envelope.

Re: No matter what, Equifax may tell you you’ve been impacted by the hack

#20

Post by hpcjoe »

I will be blunt, and I am very incensed by this.

My comments ... https://twitter.com/hpcjoe/status/906549917509980160

This is an extinction level event for Equifax. They need to be disassembled, their stored data destroyed correctly and securely, their negligent officers charged.

This isn't an accident. You don't surface 0.134 BILLION bits of PII without some sort of criminal level incompetence.

Any organization that uses Equifax data in any decision making process needs to be held accountable, as there may have been earlier intrusions also undiscovered, that have altered. Which, if they then choose to use them in any decision process whatsoever, brings them liability for misuse of possibly tampered with data.

I am quite serious when I say that Equifax should cease to exist as a result of this. All others should be audited for security, and audited hard.

Again, not being hyperbolic. But quite direct, with appropriate levels of anger at Equifax.

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