You! You didn't pay a small bill 4 years ago because you changed address and a debt collector marked you as naughty. No loan for you! Hahaha! ... Oh, we just leaked all of your information. Ah well, today is a new day, ... dum diddly dum...
Fury!
Equifax’s Maddening Unaccountability
211–220 of 238 posts
Re: Equifax’s Maddening Unaccountability
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well here in europe it didn't happen all at once. It was a gradual rolling of chip based cards, atms and terminals. There was a non-insignificant amount of time where some atms / pos terminals would reject your card because you/it didn't have the right technology. But ultimately I think its the people themselves that demand more security from their banks. E.g. Bank one introduces chip based cards and more people choo…
How do banks in Europe verify identity? i.e. I call the bank and claim to be "Margaret Thatcher," what's the next step? Here in the U.S. the next step is usually asking for the social security number. I called VISA/Citi to re-activate my card after traveling and they asked for the associated phone number with my account. Neither of these are especially secure, in my opinion.
Can't talk about the whole Europe, but in my country there aren't many banking services provided via phone and banks keep decreasing their count insisting on their clients to use mobile app, online banking or ATM. I believe you can't even get available balance in my current bank via phone.
Re: Equifax’s Maddening Unaccountability
#213Whatever happened at Equifax was disastrous. But I really liked the way that they are containing it. Their CEO released a statement. They launched a specific site for security scans for their user for free. They are communicating it to their customers transparently. With that I also saw that cyber security is and will be the biggest threats of the next decade. They are many cyber security companies these days but I d…
Since they are being so thoughtful, maybe they could offer to pay the charges to freeze affected accounts.
Re: Equifax’s Maddening Unaccountability
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, many times. It is not that hard to not base your entire banking system on a single number anyone can use .
What gives banks right to consider SSN an authenticator? Is there a law allowing that? Common sense suggests it should only be possible if user explicitly accepted "I agree that knowing my SSN is enough to prove it's me and I agree to be liable to any debts created with just my SSN presented".
You misunderstand US law. Yes, someone can use my SSN (along with other private information) to create a debt. That doesn't make me liable. If it shows up on my credit report, I can disclaim responsibility using existing legal protections. As long as I truly didn't create the debt, it is the debt holder's problem.
Re: Equifax’s Maddening Unaccountability
#215Whatever happened at Equifax was disastrous. But I really liked the way that they are containing it. Their CEO released a statement. They launched a specific site for security scans for their user for free. They are communicating it to their customers transparently. With that I also saw that cyber security is and will be the biggest threats of the next decade. They are many cyber security companies these days but I d…
> But I really liked the way that they are containing it.
Please let this be sarcasm...
> They are communicating it to their customers transparently.
They knew well in advance that there was an issue and did not communicate it well. They have 3 higher managers that look to have sold their stock based on the knowledge. There are some reports that they knew up to 3 months ahead of their announcement.
> They launched a specific site for security scans for their user for free.
Things that are wrong with this site:
- The site screams "phishing" when you look at the URL.
- Asks for SIX digits of your SSN. If you know the state of the person filling out the form and they were issued their SSN before 2011, you only need to try a few numbers to figure out their whole SSN.
- Gives random results when you fill out the form
- You possibly forfeit being able to sue them by filling out the form.
- When you fill out the form they basically advertise their own product to you.
At this point, as a consumer, it feels like they are doing everything in their power to get away with not being held accountable for not storing this data properly.
8 in 10 US credit card holders have their SSN and possibly other information out there. This means that I'm at high risk to have my identity stolen in the future, not just the next twelve months that Equifax is offering me free Identity Theft Protection.
Last but not least, when you freeze your credit score, they give you a PIN to unfreeze it. But if you were to lose it, you'll only need some identification to get a new PIN and unfreeze it. But they've already released that identification and it's being sold around. So no luck there.
Re: Equifax’s Maddening Unaccountability
#216There's something very disturbing about the fact that they can collect my personal information (without my approval); profit on that info (without compensating me); and then get hacked and I have no reasonable recourse for what they've done?? How can they not be liable? How is this not negligence?
The credit system sucks. But has anybody created a better alternative yet?
As far as I know, USA is the only country that uses such terrible credit system. In most other countries credit rating is controlled by the government itself or is at least heavily regulated. I haven't encountered any problems with my credit system -- nobody can check my credit rating without my prior written (or digitally signed) permission and I can login online anytime to see who has checked it. Furthermore, once in a year I can get a complete, free report to explicitly see how my credit rating is calculated.
Re: Equifax’s Maddening Unaccountability
#217>> I’m still dealing with the damage to my credit rating that resulted when I forgot to return a library book and a collection agency was called in (for a paltry sum).
...
>>Zeynep Tufekci (@zeynep), an associate professor at the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina
You'd think she of all people would know better.
Re: Equifax’s Maddening Unaccountability
#218There's something very disturbing about the fact that they can collect my personal information (without my approval); profit on that info (without compensating me); and then get hacked and I have no reasonable recourse for what they've done?? How can they not be liable? How is this not negligence?
Treating my identity (aka personal privacy) as my personal property would help remedy this imbalance. Make a buck off my data (property), give me my cut. Allow someone to steal some portion of my identity, pay me damages.
Don't want to be liable? Then don't store my data.
Re: Equifax’s Maddening Unaccountability
#219There's something very disturbing about the fact that they can collect my personal information (without my approval); profit on that info (without compensating me); and then get hacked and I have no reasonable recourse for what they've done?? How can they not be liable? How is this not negligence?
If you're looking for a model for better regulation, take a look at the EU's General Data Protection Regulations. It just makes sense to have a single piece of legislation that regulates the use of personal data and a single statutory regulatory agency with powers of enforcement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Data_Protection_Regula...
Re: Equifax’s Maddening Unaccountability
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure they actually care in Washington. I was impacted by the OPM breech. I got a form letter and some credit monitoring. All that outrage and, as near as I can tell, not a damned thing has changed. I might be biased and jaded.
Thats exactly what I'm saying. There is near zero incentive for congress to enact consumer protection legislation.
especially when they're trying to dismantle what little we have (CFPB)