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Over 275 days since Equifax’s data breach settlement and no one has been paid

511 points| ProAm | 5 years ago |interest.com | reply

152 comments

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[+] g051051|5 years ago|reply
From the settlement web site:

"The Court gave final approval to the Settlement and overruled all objections on January 13, 2020. However, some of those that objected to the Settlement have now appealed the Court’s decision to approve the Settlement. By order of the Court, the Settlement cannot become final until all appeals are resolved and there is currently no timeline for the resolution of these appeals. When the appellate court enters a schedule for the appeal, we will update this website to provide individuals with more guidance as to the timing of a decision. Please check back for further updates."

[+] alteria|5 years ago|reply
iirc, other than writing the Court a letter, this was the other major way to indicate your displeasure towards the settlement
[+] yalogin|5 years ago|reply
Come on now that is not quite true. Some politicians got paid to make this thing go away with a legislation.
[+] markus_zhang|5 years ago|reply
No idea why but I always feel any company dealing with blackbox credit rules are very fishy...wish there is a way to remove them away from the financial system.
[+] WhyNotHugo|5 years ago|reply
Having lived in Argentina and The Netherlands all my adult life, I don't fully grasp why you even need those companies -- probably due to the fact that average citizens never deal with those (if they even exist here).

I do think that American culture is a lot more credit-based though, whereas in many places, people don't spend money they don't yet have (eg: I don't have a credit card, and neither do the grand majority of my friends).

[+] 317070|5 years ago|reply
EDITED: the below is wrong (as stated by a child comment). There is a diversity of systems in Europe.

OLD COMMENT: Here's the thing, as far as I know, Europe does not have those companies. So it definitely should be possible to do without them...

[+] acklenx|5 years ago|reply
I can't get my [knowledge-based authentication] data back. I don't want their measly $125 from them (it will cost me far more time and money when this breach is used against me). I want them to pay the cost for the government to replace the SSN as an identifier. And to pay for the government give me a new SSN in the meanwhile... and they don't get to store the new SSN in their database (because they dun messed up). I think that would be a better outcome for everyone.
[+] pas|5 years ago|reply
There's no need for SSN at all.

Everyone is identified by their birth date, the name of their mother and their birth place. (Their own name is not that important, for example twins can pull off identity fraud easily, as they can pretend to have the name of their twin, and how would anyone know!?)

Sure, we can go full 1984 and GATTACA and use biomarkers and papers and whatever. But that just makes puts many edge cases out of scope, doesn't solve them at all.

If someone shows up at the bank and claims to be someone, they can produce documents, either via simple forgery or by stealing someone else's "identity".

They can then pass all the checks the bank runs. (Sure, if there is some database that says don't open accounts for these IDs, then the scammer can start with persuading the admins of that DB to unlock the corresponding ID.)

And this will always happen as long as we allow fallbacks for people to get access to (and create) their accounts after losing (or without creating) a strong cryptographic key (password).

[+] zaidf|5 years ago|reply
If only the media cared as much about ppl’s super critical data being exposed as it cares about the privacy of my Facebook Likes.
[+] dylan604|5 years ago|reply
But does the media even care about that? Or was that the point you were trying to make?
[+] 0xy|5 years ago|reply
The lawyers haven't finished looting the cash. Does anyone even care about the token amount of cash they're likely to receive?
[+] gouggoug|5 years ago|reply
It's not about the insignificant amount of money everyone will get out of it; it's about equifax being severely punished and fined, even though that settlement won't really change anything.
[+] ryneandal|5 years ago|reply
How are the lawyers the bad guys in this data breach issue? Equifax, its what's for dinner.
[+] victorkab|5 years ago|reply
It’s really a loss for consumers across the United States.

The reality is that a large part of the fintech sector still depends on the data provided by Equifax. Their data is also used for KYC and other security use cases.

We have started Truework (https://www.truework.com) to break that dependency and give consumers control of their data. If you’re interested to help us, please contact me by email.

[+] wl|5 years ago|reply
The Work Number collects payroll information from employers without informing employees that they turn around and sell that information to third parties. They mislead people by saying they don't release pay information without employee authorization while neglecting to mention they sell everything else without asking permission or giving notification.

It looks like you're doing similar kinds of data collection directly from employers. If an employee doesn't request income verification or any other service from you folks, do you collect any data on that employee?

[+] vageli|5 years ago|reply
> It’s really a loss for consumers across the United States.

> The reality is that a large part of the fintech sector still depends on the data provided by Equifax. Their data is also used for KYC and other security use cases.

> We have started Truework (https://www.truework.com) to break that dependency and give consumers control of their data. If you’re interested to help us, please contact me by email.

I would be curious to know more about how you give consumers control over their data. I took a look at your link but it is not clear to me.

[+] paulgb|5 years ago|reply
If I remember the settlement details, something like 75 million was for legal fees.

I bet they've been paid.

[+] nmstoker|5 years ago|reply
Why is the company that had the breach managing the payments? Surely it should be neutral third party who then just passes on the final bill.
[+] WhyNotHugo|5 years ago|reply
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that neutral party should be the court.

If I get a fine, I'm sure I can't just wait a few years to pay it with no big deal behind that.

[+] cft|5 years ago|reply
Call me cynical, but when I read the news of the breach I went and bought EFX call options for 3 months. Because even though I am not sure whether the "deep state" exists or it's a conspiracy theory, I was somehow confident that I was making a good investment. It has paid off handsomely indeed.
[+] echelon|5 years ago|reply
When you buy calls but don't have the capital to exercise those calls, do brokerage services lend you the money to collect on the gains assuming your call is in the black?

I have a pretty good stock portfolio, but I haven't dipped my toes into the call/put, futures, derivatives, "iron condors", etc. world yet.

[+] DSingularity|5 years ago|reply
I don’t get the connection?
[+] rhacker|5 years ago|reply
I think I would have preferred the company be removed of their ability to collect credit information than any other penalty.
[+] Andrex|5 years ago|reply
I suppose "the company be dissolved, its records thoroughly purged, and its ability to legally operate revoked" is a bit too much... though it shouldn't be.
[+] xfitm3|5 years ago|reply
The US credit system is a bunch of bullshit anyway.

> "Good credit is for poor people" - words of a wealthy friend.

[+] SilasX|5 years ago|reply
Is there a reason the triopoly (with Experian and Transunion) persists? I know the bond raters have some government granted status. If it’s the same situation for Experian, maybe they could lose that status to some other company?
[+] cgb223|5 years ago|reply
How could consumers force this outcome?

Is there anything we can (collectively) do?

[+] paulie_a|5 years ago|reply
Opting out should be available

And a corporate death penalty should exist. Destroy the company completely.

[+] A4ET8a8uTh0|5 years ago|reply
I was hoping that such an egregious case would merit at least an enforced slap on the wrist. I guess even the talk of insider trading did not change that outcome. This, along with other recent events, suggests that justice system is tiered. This does not bode well for the future of the republic.
[+] hwc|5 years ago|reply
I want to sue the credit agencies for stalking me.
[+] dylan604|5 years ago|reply
Would you need to first file a retraining order, or can you just jump straight into litigation?
[+] gumby|5 years ago|reply
I doubt that headline is really correct: likely the lawyers have some cash to show for their efforts. Who cares about the actual claimants?
[+] basch|5 years ago|reply
The data has never surfaced. I have to wonder if anybody who claims they had direct identity theft because of the breach automatically loses their claim.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/13/equifax-mystery-where-is-the...

It's interesting that most coverage of the incident ignores that detail. I guess people really dont like to hear it because it doesnt fit their narrative. Whatever this interest.com article is, it has very little value. It reads like seo spam. It doesn't discuss any of the developments in the last three weeks, such as Chicago, Indiana, Massachusetts all working out settlements.

[+] MattGaiser|5 years ago|reply
I'm surprised to just be learning that it was probably a governmental cyberattack.
[+] akersten|5 years ago|reply
To be clear, are you saying that in order for a data breach to be considered legitimate, the plundered data needs to be released publicly?
[+] bogomipz|5 years ago|reply
So in your "narrative" do social security numbers and other sensitive personal details have some sort of expiration date where if they don't "surface" within a certain time frame they are no longer useable?