How Goldman Sachs Made More Than $1B with Credit Scores • Hacker News Board

Re: How Goldman Sachs Made More Than $1B with Credit Scores

#41

Post by user5994461 » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 12:27 PM UTC

snarfy wrote: post #40

user5994461 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an European who've tried the American way. I have to say that it is clearly worse. In the EU country I was, when i get a job/flat/whatever, I give a copy of my national ID and tax statement, and that's alright. In the USA/UK, when I get a job/flat/whatever, noone trusts me or the government. I have to give plenty of documents and 5 years of history to a 3rd party shady check agency, that's gonna resell the data an…

> all because you wanted to avoid trusting a government. That didn't go well. I'm not so sure considering the current administration.

The administration already has all these information. You're registered for taxes, healthcare, criminal background, etc.

You're not hiding anything from them and you're not helping yourself by duplicating that to shady agencies.

Re: How Goldman Sachs Made More Than $1B with Credit Scores

#42

Post by superquest » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 12:36 PM UTC

killbrad wrote: post #21

superquest wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. Recently I logged into Mint for the first time in a few years, and was quite disturbed to realize they had been importing every debit or credit card transaction, and every student loan payment I made. They know my financial health better than my bank does ...

What's surprising to me is how many people are surprised by this. You gave them the credentials to all of your accounts, and then are shocked that they used them? What's more incredible is that you haven't changed the credentials for any of your critical accounts in that time.

I simply forgot that I did it. I gave them my credentials half a decade ago when I didn't know what I was doing ...

Re: How Goldman Sachs Made More Than $1B with Credit Scores

#43

Post by 1_2__3 » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 1:08 PM UTC

FTA wrote: post #17

People are always terrified of the Big Brother from government, but any time I have to verify my identity with questions like "What street of the listed have you lived on?" or "Which of these banks do you have a loan with?" it makes me realize how much aggregated data private (especially financial) companies have. I can imagine these corporations selling that info for good money, like how many transactions you make a…

And the whole thing is effectively structured as a 4th amendment sidestepping initiative. Which is why it will never go away.

Re: How Goldman Sachs Made More Than $1B with Credit Scores

#44

Post by kevin_thibedeau » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 1:21 PM UTC

caseysoftware wrote: post #25

superquest wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. Recently I logged into Mint for the first time in a few years, and was quite disturbed to realize they had been importing every debit or credit card transaction, and every student loan payment I made. They know my financial health better than my bank does ...

Since they store the actual passwords and lose the connection as soon as you change them, I'm shocked that you went years without changing those passwords..

At least it speaks highly of Mint's security practices. Their DB hasn't been stolen yet.

Re: How Goldman Sachs Made More Than $1B with Credit Scores

#45

Post by 0xfeba » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 1:58 PM UTC

snarfy wrote: post #40

user5994461 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an European who've tried the American way. I have to say that it is clearly worse. In the EU country I was, when i get a job/flat/whatever, I give a copy of my national ID and tax statement, and that's alright. In the USA/UK, when I get a job/flat/whatever, noone trusts me or the government. I have to give plenty of documents and 5 years of history to a 3rd party shady check agency, that's gonna resell the data an…

> all because you wanted to avoid trusting a government. That didn't go well. I'm not so sure considering the current administration.

Well, perhaps, but even the one thing we did trust them with (OPM data) all got pilfered away.

Re: How Goldman Sachs Made More Than $1B with Credit Scores

#46

Post by patrick_haply » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 2:06 PM UTC

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #44

caseysoftware wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since they store the actual passwords and lose the connection as soon as you change them, I'm shocked that you went years without changing those passwords..

At least it speaks highly of Mint's security practices. Their DB hasn't been stolen yet.

Serious question: how do we know for certain that their DB hasn't been stolen yet?

Re: How Goldman Sachs Made More Than $1B with Credit Scores

#47

Post by taylorwc » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 2:16 PM UTC

snowmaker wrote: post #3

The "web" link isn't working for me anymore, even in an incognito browser. Is it working for anyone else, or is there some other solution to read WSJ articles?

There is a handy Chrome extension that can solve this called xray:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/xray/dgkdfehohjdbm...

Re: How Goldman Sachs Made More Than $1B with Credit Scores

#48

Post by tommynicholas » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 2:18 PM UTC

FTA wrote: post #17

People are always terrified of the Big Brother from government, but any time I have to verify my identity with questions like "What street of the listed have you lived on?" or "Which of these banks do you have a loan with?" it makes me realize how much aggregated data private (especially financial) companies have. I can imagine these corporations selling that info for good money, like how many transactions you make a…

You're very right, although that method of authentication (known as "Knowledge Based Authentication" or "Out of Wallet Questions" more specifically) is highly ineffective. Users can't answer the questions reliably, hackers can reliably steal the info. Look for that method to be entirely out of the industry within the next 5 years. There are better ways.

Re: How Goldman Sachs Made More Than $1B with Credit Scores

#49

Post by Super_Jambo » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 2:27 PM UTC

snarfy wrote: post #40

user5994461 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an European who've tried the American way. I have to say that it is clearly worse. In the EU country I was, when i get a job/flat/whatever, I give a copy of my national ID and tax statement, and that's alright. In the USA/UK, when I get a job/flat/whatever, noone trusts me or the government. I have to give plenty of documents and 5 years of history to a 3rd party shady check agency, that's gonna resell the data an…

> all because you wanted to avoid trusting a government. That didn't go well. I'm not so sure considering the current administration.

You trust people who sell your info to spammers not to sell or even give it to the gov?

Re: How Goldman Sachs Made More Than $1B with Credit Scores

#50

Post by dopamean » Mon, Apr 10, 2017, 2:33 PM UTC

tommynicholas wrote: post #48

FTA wrote: post #17

People are always terrified of the Big Brother from government, but any time I have to verify my identity with questions like "What street of the listed have you lived on?" or "Which of these banks do you have a loan with?" it makes me realize how much aggregated data private (especially financial) companies have. I can imagine these corporations selling that info for good money, like how many transactions you make a…

You're very right, although that method of authentication (known as "Knowledge Based Authentication" or "Out of Wallet Questions" more specifically) is highly ineffective. Users can't answer the questions reliably, hackers can reliably steal the info. Look for that method to be entirely out of the industry within the next 5 years. There are better ways.

I'm curious. What are the better ways?