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Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

bloomberg.com

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Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#641

Post by subroutine »

joe_the_user wrote: post #500
subroutine wrote: post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't seem like the executive and judicial branches will need to get involved whatsoever if there is a multibillion dollar lawsuit; if successful this will basically 'dissolve' Equifax.

Well, I wouldn't shed any tears over the dissolution of Equifax and other credit agencies - though a lawsuit would of course involve the judicial branch (the courts). But the problem is: A. If Equifax gets a judgment for close to or for more than the company is worth, the simplest way one could assure the suit is paid to sell the company, keeping the operation going rather than ending it. B. Many businesses integrate…

> they couldn't survive without the credit agencies

Europe operates just fine without the notion of credit or credit agencies.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#642

Post by ada1981 »

$70B works out to less than $500/ person.

I imagine that the firm will take 25-50%.

Also, Equifax will likely just go bankrupt vs. paying 4x what they are worth.

Perhaps we should seek to have the company turned over to the people, at which point a blockchain based credit system can be implemented.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#643

Post by wildmusings »

learc83 wrote: post #625
wildmusings wrote: post #610

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have to convince a jury that the property in question is the proceeds of a crime.

That's not true in all cases, which is one of the problems people have with civil asset forfeiture.

That is civil asset forfeiture.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#644

Post by sjg007 »

arduanika wrote: post #549
sjg007 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In small claims court, would you not have to show $1000 worth of damages?

Yes, and it's possible using simply arithmetic and market rates! Given that freezing your credit ratings is a necessary precaution after this damage inflicted by their negligently unpartitioned database, we can calculate: 1 legally guaranteed free credit report / year * ($5 freeze before + $5 unfreeze after) * 3 agencies * 33 more years of healthy remaining life God willing = $990 right there. Move apartments or chan…

Actual, not theoretical.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#645

Post by fma »

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…

I hope their executives get criminal charges. Credit Reporting Agency has a huge responsibility to keep this data safe. Lets charge with their CISO...you know, the one that graduated with a degree in music composition and just recently took down her LinkedIn profile.

https://www.boardroominsiders.com/executive-profiles/1006308...

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#646

Post by fma »

astockwell wrote: post #322
samstave wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should a sound approach, then, not be, to incorporate one-self at birth? What if A Person were to be born into a corporation and all transactions made by thhem be the corporations actions - if things go south, dissolve the company. (clearly this is simplistic, but you get the idea) I want to re-form myself into one of these corporations which has little retribution for actions. I shall pledge 10% of SamStave INC LLC…

Indeed, this seems only logical. I honestly have this thought every time I make a large financial decision: Renting a house? Would be much easier to break the lease (Should I ever need to) if my surrogate 'corporation' with few assets were the leasee. Ditto with many medical situations/other large expenses. Plus, much better tax deductions!

Well, this is why most people (including myself) put rental property under an LLC. I wouldn't let a tenant sign the lease as a corporation unless they were a legit corporation - you know, companies rent houses all the time for executives that relocate, etc. If the tenant breaks the lease, I'd sue the company and their assets.

Real world example: I did a summer internship one year and the company rented a few houses for the interns. Myself and 2 college guys were in one. Landlord claimed damage on the air conditioner because it iced over due to not changing the filter...ended up getting money from the company.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#647

Post by zdkl »

School-Cotton wrote: post #632
zdkl wrote: post #605

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For which priviledge Chase charges you something obscene. The process post-theft on a debit card is not as scary as you seem to think it is, but that may be a EU vs US rather than credit vs debit thing.

Chase isn't charging me anything for the privilege. I have two credit cards with them -- one with a $0 fee and the other with a $450 yearly fee (but on which I earn way more than $450 in rewards points a year so it washes out). They charge interest, but you don't pay any interest if you settle the full balance every month, which I always do.

I'm sure the maths work out at an individual level, but have you considered the effect on pricing being a debit-first society would have?

Most merchants/payment processors include a premium for handling the edge cases that arise from credit-linked misbehaviour. In the same way you sometimes get a cash discount, removing the merchant/provider protections should show up in your wallet as a good (and surprisingly high) surprise.

As I understand it (please correct me), the party who gains for the furtherance of this agenda is the financial service sector who has another opportunity to insert marginal fees and more importantly, a direct access to your transactions without necessarily having the same fiduciary duty or alignement of goals than a bank teller/account manager would have.

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#648

Post by carapace »

jacquesm wrote: post #638
carapace wrote: post #637

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So many possible responses. First of all, let me tell you I'm a lonely curmudgeon with no social life and about 1.5 friends. HN functions for me as a crude surrogate for socializing, in addition to its functions as a place to read about cool stuff, and yes, occasionally, a place to pop off and talk a little trash. I do try to contribute good stuff. So understand that I'm being sincere when I say, thank you for taking…

That's one for the book as well as the one about unicode and writing systems. To me the quality of a comment is something that indicates how well that comment will age over time, some comments retain their strength even years later and your unicode comment is an excellent example of one of those. It really opened my eyes and gave me some new insight into something that I had already considered dealt with years ago. S…

Cheers, well met. :-)

Here's to many more long-enduring quality comments.

(It blew me away when I realized that computer text isn't writing! English is so well served by ASCII, and has been since so early on, that the assumption that bytes are the same as writing just gets lodged in there, unexamined.)

Re: Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack

#650

Post by gorbachev »

Chaebixi wrote: post #71
hedora wrote: post #17

I'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…

> I said it elsewhere, but I think the right response is to opt out of the class, and sue for $1000 in small claims court. If ~15% of the class does this, they are out of business, and lawyers don't get a dime of the $1000. IANAL, but can't you only sue for actual damages not hypothetical damages? According to this [1] your identity with SSN is only worth $30 on the black market. To get $1000 out of them you'd probab…

You can sue for anything. They'll have to show up to respond, or you win by default regardless of whether your case is valid or not.

This would cost them a fortune.

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