Equifax waited 5 weeks to admit it had doxed 44% of America, did nothing to help us while its execs sold stock
Fake News! Oh, wait a minute…
4 Likes
Equifax can eat a bag of dicks.
Many years ago, I had two weird things happen within a few months of each other: the bank that my sister and I both had accounts in accidentally swapped our SSNs and mixed our accounts up, and I overdrew on the wrong account. And another bank I’d once used, and closed my accounts in five years prior, notified me that they’d accidentally forgotten to close my account and that my low-account fees (they’d left .02 cents in?) had been reported.
Equifax got in touch and told me that these two things hurt my credit score but that they’d consider lowering it if I wrote personal letters begging for forgiveness to the two banks, and sent them copies to show how sorry I was. I refused. My credit score still sucks.
18 Likes
I think a big part of the problem is that as a society we recognize that data is an asset, but we have not come to grips with the fact that data is also a liability. Mega-corps are rewarded for hoovering up as much data as they can about anyone and everything. But when they lose control over it, its only seen as a risk if it is either (a) internal operations data (like the DPRK’s hack of Sony) or (b) property of the finance industry (credit card numbers). Any other data is essentially treated as zero risk, probably because the actual owners don’t have the social capital to stop the Mega-corps from offloading the costs when they do lose control.
What can we do about it? Tell better stories. These big data breach stories are a dime a dozen. And all the disclosure and transparency has barely dented the problem. We need well publicized examples of personal suffering as the result of data breaches, regardless of it was 100 million record or 5 records.
We’ve all heard about the bullshit Wells Fargo fake accounts stuff, but can you name even one person who suffered personal consequences from the abuse of their info? I sure can’t. The media is really failing to do their job on these stories.
15 Likes
I do think this is part of the problem, yes. I expect my data has been compromised many times at this point. Once or twice a year I need to get a credit card replaced because the bank identified fraudulent activity. To date it hasn’t actually cost me a dime, only some delay and hassle. I know I shouldn’t, but I do get inured to it.
1 Like
Corporations are actually criminal enterprises? Who knew?
7 Likes
NY State AG Eric Schneiderman: “This language [where If you check Equifax’s site to see if your data was stolen, you waive your rights to sue Equifax or be part of a class action suit] is unacceptable and unenforceable. My staff has already contacted @Equifax to demand that they remove it.”
22 Likes
Three cheers for the people in government still interested in sticking up for real people and not legal constructs.
11 Likes
12 Likes
Too big to fail? That seems like the best corporate defence.
1 Like
Now, imagine if bureaus could tie your credit score with your social media posts. For example for every time a derogatory comment about trump was recorded your score was decreased.
They’re going to need bigger bags of dicks.
15 Likes
44% eh?
24% of the US population is under 18 years old, basically none of them have credit reports.
That brings us up to 58% of the population that plausibly could have a credit report.
I’d guess that quite a few others lack them, never having interacted deeply enough with the financial system.
Hard for me to see how this is anything less than ‘every report that existed prior to date X when the hole was plugged’.
9 Likes
5 Likes
Buried in the story below is the point that Equifax acquired the identity theft company ID Watchdog one month ago:
Consumers might want to skip that one when looking for third party services. Also, I wonder if any managers bought their stock recently…
6 Likes
The depressing thing about this story, aside from the story; is that it’s only a story because Equifax didn’t get paid.
Doxxing America is what Equifax does. The whole point of the operation. It’s just that you are supposed to be a paying customer to get access; and whoever was involved here decided to skip that step.
14 Likes
Oh god, China’s implementing Whuffie. Fuck fuck fuckity FUUUUCK. Dy-st-op-ia.
2 Likes
Question for you legal peoples. If I say yes to that clickthru agreement in order to view the extent to which my data was breached, I believe I’d be doing so under duress. Would a court be likely to support this argument to let people like me (i.e., everyone) join the class action?
1 Like
How do we know they are not already doing that? I wouldn’t put it past 'em. Aren’t police departments trying to predict “future crime” from all the data that’s out there? What’s to stop credit bureaus from doing the same?
Edit: Added link.
3 Likes
This article mostly not about social media. But there is discussion of some trials.
5 Likes
The only way they aren’t going to jail is if they didn’t clean up the paper trail sufficiently well.
Or of course, they have been a dick to IT.
2 Likes
