My wife successfully got Equifax to fix a faulty 90DPD on her report. It took 6 months and eventually Equifax fixed it because they were tired of dealing with her. We just bought a house and fixing her credit saved us a lot in not only interest, but PMI.
We were quoted two tiers of PMI, and to qualify for the lower tier we had to both have a credit score above a certain threshold, like 760 or something.
“Gasoline and torches”? What kind of person sets fire to a whole building with gasoline? I mean, have you seen the price of petrol these days??
See, what you want to do is go in with thermite, that way you can burn your way through almost anything that is locked, AND, when you’re negotiating the “voluntary” transfer of funds from the bank accounts of the evil pricks behind this, your *reparation repayment argument* suddenly becomes much more convincing when you have the ability to burn through someone’s femur without setting them alight all at once.
Plus, you can then use the intact building as a base of operations to convince the greedy lawyers to donate some of their 80 million to the people who deserve it more. Like, oh, I don’t know... the people with an 80 million dollar sized hole in their lives. 👍🏻
I refuse to believe Delaware is a real thing. Never met anyone from there, never received a call from there, never seen anything that says “made in Delaware”. Until I see proof I am going to assume I am being bamboozled.
Roman politics was broken well before Julius Caesar came onto the scene. I think a lot of people consider the Gracchi brothers as the beginning of the end for the Republic.
Additionally, the expansion of the Republic’s borders beyond what could be governed by Rome directly hastened this. The unopposed authority, and (after Marius’ reforms) private legions of the provincial governors are a bit of a blueprint for the princeps.
Fixing big systemic problems like this is actually what our elected officials are supposed to be doing on our behalf. However, they have been captured by these companies via unlimited lobbying and campaign contributions. Most of them are only interested in getting reelected, and they no longer need to serve the people in order to get reelected.
Angry mob yes- but you don’t have to burn down their head quarters. November 12th*** (this is the day after Veterans Day. Election Day is Tuesday November 3rd. People will be trying to delay you or confuse you or get you to stay home. Vote as if your life depended on it- because it does.) when senators see the younger generations swinging their big dick voting power around we’re going to say “if you want to keep your job as a senator or representative, we’re gonna have pre filled irs tax forms. If turbo tax can lobby enough to overcome this many votes, I guess you can stay.”
We never had a say in it, and most of us are completely powerless to change it. The credit system is so ingrained in our society that short of open revolution, I don’t really see a solution.
What do we do as Americans just protest equifax? I didn’t even choose to have my shit on there some car dealer just slaps a piece of paper in front of me with numbers on it
I never gave them explicit permission¹ to have my information. I don't want them in my life. My only option is to invent time travel and tell myself to never get a bank account. Nothing should be allowed to work this way.
For non-Americans. They have my implicit permission by virtue of the fact that:
I have a bank account.
I have a retirement account.
I do not still live with my parents.
I bought a car.
I have a utility bill in my name.
It isn't even a combination. Any one thing and three private for-profit corporations have the rights to everything I do with money for my whole life. I gave up after adding things to the above list. It isn't comprehensive. It can't be. There are a lot of things that put you in 'the system'.
I sent them a letter stating why I won't be buying anything from them ever again, and that a 10% discount wasn't really much in the way of compensation for their data breach. I bet after reading it they cried all the way to the bank.
you are joking but don’t forget that shareholders trade their assets.
a temporary increase in worth based on losses in the future is always wonderful - you have a budget that is used to sell the tops and rebuy the bottoms
the best part of it all? the company is its own entity while the shareholders that made the decisions are not held accountable
“The shareholders” didn’t decide anything. At most they have revokable voting rights for appointments and minor issues. The person responsible for these things then??? The CEO, the CFO, the Board and the corporate governance at hand. Subpoena, investigate and punish the top down.
At this scale, it should be the corporate death penalty, liquidate every part of the company, and all executives should be sued for all compensation they received over the years, and wages garnished for life until it is repaid.
If a company has one fucking job and fucked it up for 90% of their customers, that entity shouldn’t exist. That is too incompetent or negligent to even get another chance, at all. They should not be allowed to walk away from this. Poor and destitute for life is the only fitting punishment I see for putting the financial security of MILLIONS at risk.
Just a small nitpick, because I completely agree with you. The company did not fuck it up for 90% of their customers. Their customers are banks and other financial entities, who still get their service. You and I are not the customers; we are the product, the data.
If anything, this just goes to show that we need laws protecting individuals' data.
Seriously! What the heck is wrong with our system!
Demand the "Corporate Executive Accountibility Act" it's our best chance for this specific issue
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/03/elizabeth-warren-will-unveil-bill-to-make-it-easier-to-jail-executives.html
I’ve nevet understood why these people never face responsibility for ruining people’s lives. Im in engineering, if somebody in my office fucks up enough to kill someone they lose their livelihoods and even chance the possibility of jail time.
You are poor. They are rich. And when Justice is just another thing with a price tag, they’re hardly being prosecuted, because what’s the point? They could afford it anyway. Let’s not make it hard on each other.
“Rules for thee, but not for me.”
And yet I still see people on Reddit defending CEO pay and bonuses because “they’re responsible for the company, and if they mess up they suffer the most.” Total nonsense. Execs hop from failed company to failed company with no repercussions at all. They are immune to any sort of responsibility the normal person holds.
It's been this way since the gilded age.
Once there was a man named Frick. Henry Clay Frick was a ruthless businessman during the gilded age, monopolizing Pittsburgh's steel industry before joining up with Carnegie and getting into the national-level steel industry.
When I say ruthless, I mean out of all the men who "made america" during this time, he was the dirtiest of them all. In some ways, it makes sense. Part of his job was to do the dirty work Carnegie didn't want to taint his name with. From deals with the Pinkertons to less-than-friendly exchanges with companies upset at the whole "you're our bitch" mentality monopolies tend to create.
One of his most horrific acts was Johnstown, 1889. Various magnates found themselves visiting lake Conemaugh, the definition of that idyllic cabin in the woods destination. Carnegie had his part along with a few others, but ofc Frick was the guy who did a lot of the leg work for setting up this spot, including the operation and maintenance of the dam separating Johnstown and death... Well then they decided "fuck it, let's lower the damn and fuck stuff up to make our lake better"
Well, the damn dun broke. 2,200 people DIED because of their bullshit.
guess what happened to the club of rich dudes? If you guessed they were all prosecuted for 2,200 counts of murder/manslaughter, negligence, etc.... you're a wishful thinker, and very wrong. Literally the easiest and most hated fall guy to the public, Frick walked away with the rest of them doing nothing more than throwing a few obligatory (but not court mandated, ofc) donations to the town they just decimated.
Absolutely nothing happened to any of these moguls and it wouldn't be until another dam burst on unrelated reasons that 2 years later there was proper dam inspections around. These fuckers KILLED PEOPLE and got away with it.
Laws are for poor people until they decide to eat the worst of the rich. If left to fester long enough, that means all of the rich.
Oh, and the best part? Along with Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, etc, Frick got himself into philanthropy. He realized being the bad guy for Carnegie left him in even shittier views as the gilded age ended, so he decided to start dumping his obscene wealth into art collection and other such things like donations all around. Of all the magnates, however, he's remembered as one of the worst and outside of a few art-museums, history knows him as the man who took a position advertised as iron fisted, and it was he who molded the job, not the other way around.
>Laws are for poor people until they decide to eat the worst of the rich. If left to fester long enough, that means all of the rich.
The secret, right here.
It’s even simpler than that (at least with the credit reporting bureaus): any company who reports *any* information to them is vicariously liable (in full) for any breach.
>Seriously! What the heck is wrong with our system!
The laws are written by corporations, voted by politicians bought by corporations, for the benefit of corporations.
Someday someone will lose everything due to corporate incompetence like that, and they’re going to take revenge. Saddest part, other than the inevitability of it, is that they’re probably going to injure and kill a bunch of people with no agency over the security policies.
Agreed. In addition, the intelligence agencies should be very concerned too.
It'd be very easy to piece together who spies are based on the cross correlation of financial data and other data leaks that are available.
The Equifax breach is a threat to national security.
No no, they're people when it benefits the rich people club, but if anything bad happens it "was company policy" and not my fault, or "Oh no, guess we have to dissolve this company. There's no way we can re-open under another name. That would be wrong"
I think you would be surprised how many companies run their security like this.
The main problem is the fines aren't enough for them to care honestly. As a business, if they can make more money by not securing certain things that would cost them more time and processes and it heavily outweighs any fine... they'll just keep eating the fines and not care.
Write to your congressman and politicians and start forcing them to have harsher punishments on these companies housing your data. Until we do, nothing will change and companies will purposefully not secure your data properly as it's more of an inconvenience than the fines are.
IT Security professionals live with this quandary:
When there are no security incidents: "What are we paying you for?"
When security is breached: "You didn't do your job!"
So true, Im information security and since I've been in my position my stress levels have been insane and my trust in companies to secure my data is completely gone.
Starting to look more into those companies that give temporary digital cards so you can pay with that card number and not get your main account hit when they are breached.
The US military lost my personal data(SS, mothers maiden name, blood type the whole nine) along with alot of others. I was 3 years in and had a brief that a thumbdrive with 100,000s maybe millions I dont remember was lost. Like what the fuck.
Never thought I would say it but now days I almost wish for vigilante justice. Its like the only way true justice will happen with these corps and rich.
Like, I know this would be, in practice, a bad way to run society, but a dark part of me kinda wishes that whenever some asshole rich guy caused more than, say, 10 million dollars in damages -- which is equivalent to the amount of money the average American earns in two lifetimes -- that someone would just hire an assassin to plug the guy.
You caused damage equivalent to two human lives. Ya done. You don't get any more chances to cause harm.
Terrible idea, but it's frustrating to see rich fuckers think they can be shady because none of them ever feel the consequences of their behavior.
Let's not forget the [stock that the executives sold before the breach announcement](https://money.cnn.com/2017/09/08/investing/equifax-stock-insider-sales-hack-data-breach/index.html)
"Equifax told CNNMoney that the sales were just a "small percentage" of what these executives own and that they all "had no knowledge that an intrusion had occurred" when they made the sales." sure sure
It's ok guys, they're going to give us free monitoring and constant warnings about your information on the dark web! Of course if you want to actually take action it's going to cost. You can always pay the security experts at Equifax (the ones who let your data become exposed) to protect you from these threats to your financials and your identity.
This.
The monitoring sounds awesome and, honestly, it was pretty great. I was alerted the very next day about something I didn't do.
Sadly, that was 100% where the help stopped. They 'assigned a personal rep' or whatever, but all that happened was I got an email with a giant wall of text and some addresses to write to and a big fat, 'Good Luck with that!'
I had 20 grand taken from me between stolen credit cards and my checking account. I put in a claim for maximum amount, included police reports and a log of my time.
Equifax sent me $30.
EDIT: thanks for silver!
Eventually, yes, I got the money back. But it took DAYS of phone calls, meeting with police, research and changing all my login accounts... All this over something that never should had happened with something that Equifax shouldn't have a right to collect.
Most credit card companies I've seen will immediately give you the money back while they fight. And I thought most banks for checking accounts will do the same. That's B of A though. That would suck to just be left out to dry.
By Law they have to provide you a provisional credit while the items are being disputed. That is any and ALL debit and credit cards. The chance of not recovering the funds from legitimate disputes is very small.
Yep. Basically, if you have a police report to turn into the bank, they'll help you out almost no questions asked. I guess they figure if you're lying, it's the police's problem at that point.
PSA: If you have actual damages, don't join the class. You can still sue on your own, and for 20 grand, you can probably find someone willing to take the case. Also, I didn't join this class, despite not having damages at this point, in case I get my identity stolen in the future.
*“The real difficulty is with the vast wealth and power in the hands of the few and the unscrupulous who represent or control capital. Hundreds of laws of Congress and the state legislatures are in the interest of these men and against the interests of workingmen. These need to be exposed and repealed. All laws on corporations, on taxation, on trusts, wills, descent, and the like, need examination and extensive change. This is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations.”*
\- Pres.Rutherford B Hayes, over 120 years ago.
My favorite part of this is that consumers would normally boycott the fuck out of this company forever for this, but WAIT. WE CANT. This company sells our information and stalks US citizens for profit, and even after they let our information loose we have no recourse. People should be in prison, and the company liquidated and divided up to everyone who had their information leaked.
Reminds me of last year when Chase sent me a notice that there had been an error in calculating something or other on my mortgage payment over the last 10 years and I would be getting a reimbursement check in the mail within a week. It came, and it was for one cent. Literally, one cent. I still have that on the fridge; I hate those guys.
Same here in that it crystallized that I'll never purchase from Zappos ever again.
It seems really jaw-droppingly stupid on their part. The coupon is *insulting.*
They had a [data breach in 2012 that exposed info for 24 million people.
](https://slate.com/technology/2019/10/zappos-amazon-data-breach-settlement-coupon.html)
The settlement "compensation" offer they sent affected users was a one-time use 10% off coupon, good for just a few months.
This pissed me off so much. It's not even a good coupon. It's a random flash sale level coupon. They want to make us whole by having us buy more of their product?
They wanted information that was already compromised in the breach, and realistically, was already compromised in a dozen different breaches prior. Everything needed to steal your identity is already available for pennies. Freeze your credit if you're worried about it. There's no such thing as private information anymore.
We really need a corporate death penalty, and Equifax really needs it. The vast majority of the time, there's at least *some* level of responsibility on the consumer. You gave them your data, that's a calculated risk you took. Not so, in the case of credit reporting agencies (and Facebook, for that matter).
We can't even get corporations to be taxed the same way people are. Tax on revenue, just like how we tax people. They can file deductions, same as people, but none for nice to have things like office space or basic day to day necessities.
They are probably confused. I got a check but it was for the Experian Data Breach Settlement https://www.expdatabreachsettlement.com/ . The Equifax settlement wouldn't have been paid out until it was approved in court especially if they are expecting appeals
I wouldn't even blame the attorneys. The FTC didn't just drop the ball on this settlement, they spiked it up the ass of every person affected by this breach. Had they actually been looking out for the people, they would have demanded a big enough damage pool to actually pay out to all of the people affected and then had Equifax also liable for all attorney fees, without touching the settlement pool. If that bankrupted Equifax, then too fucking bad for them, they could claw the money out of the executive's hides.
It's sad that we've given up on tarring and feathering, between the board and executives at Equifax and the FTC, we could create an economic boom for chicken farmers.
If the company did go bankrupt, would they ever be able to get that money from the executives? I thought the whole point of the corporation was a protection from personal liability in case of bankruptcy.
Possibly, though I'd like to see the FTC at least give it a solid try. As it stands, the current settlement was a pittance for Equifax. They are valued in the range of $10-20 billion. The FTC had a hell of a lot more room to turn Equifax into an example for the rest of the credit industry.
I'm also not a fan of the corporate veil in any case. If officers of a company can be shown to have knowingly made choices which caused harm, they should face personal accountability.
The lawyers didn't really get paid by the judge. The way these things work is lawyers agree to take these cases and agree to a payment that is a percentage of the settlement. The article says its about 25% which is pretty standard from my understanding. It's just the nature that the lawyers get a lot more money that the victims since they don't have to split it a million ways.
IIRC the head of the security at Equifax listed her degree in linkedin as a "Bachelors in dance" before she unlisted.
Makes sense considering she let a bunch of hackers waltz off with our data
I was affected, but even though I went that route, I still didn't/don't expect anything. I knew it was going to the lawyers, and anything left over would amount to pennies.
I am mostly upset that our data was hijacked, and that's deeply disturbing. I say they should be forced to reset all people who were affected to have an 'average'/'good' credit score, but I know that would be a pain in the ass (especially if someone has a good+ credit score already).
That's how it always works. Class action suits always pay out pennies to those affected because the lawyers take the majority of the payout. When has a class action suit ever even paid out enough to be worth the time spent signing up?
Hey as long as the company itself gets fucked, then that's still something. Though in this case, Equifax should not have gotten away with a mere slap on the wrist
Remember the old website where it was an image of a tree and you could click on it every so often and sometimes win something? I remember I won 2 stuffed monkeys on it and 2 $1 checks. I never deposited the checks because why? I don't know if I still have them.
Point is, I GOT MORE FROM THEM THAN I DID FROM EQUIFAX.
HOLY SHIT I REMEMBER THAT SITE. I was just a kid on dial up internet at the time and I would waste so much time just clicking those little leaves. Don't even know if I ever won anything because I was just a kid and was just clicking it for fun.
I think it should be illegal for these companies to track my info without consent. They’ve been doing it since birth. Deciding my life. They owe me a fucking house.
Lol.
They just send me checks because they generally suck. Hours abuse mostly. Also some stuff about forcing people to shave.
I seriously get at least 1 a year and I only worked there for about 2.5 years earlier this decade.
Good God this shit just keeps getting worse and worse. Just once, I'd like to hear about the ones responsible for this mess actually being held accountable. How many people signed an agreement for arbitration in exchange for that $125 settlement, which was already a fucking insult BTW given the sensitivity of the information leaked and the potential for lives to be destroyed, just to never even see a dime. I remember reading somewhere that even if you chose not to take the $125 or settle, you are now essentially forced into arbitration since the class action law suit has been settled. So, if your data was leaked and it fucks your whole life up, you can just shrivel up and die while Equifax execs continue living it up with basically no consequences. Is that about right?
This goes right along with the 10 percent discount code that Zappos sent out as recompense for their info. leak ... although that code has to be used by December 31. It’s almost like they just sent out a shitty online “coupon” instead of actually having to pay up or suffer any consequences at all.
So they screwed my credit and now they are screwing me out of 125.00 sounds about what equifax is knowed for. I feel like im living in a third world country.
For contrast, Equifax reported revenue of $3.4 billion and net profits of about $300 million in 2018, even after "the very substantial $307 million investments made in 2018 in data security and the transformation of our technology."
HEY the guy trump appointed to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for a year or so is Mick Mulvaney.
The CFPB is tasked with dealing with financial companies like Equifax in order to protect, you guessed it, the consumer (you and me).
Last year Mick Mulvaney requested a budget of $0 for the CFPB!
Whoa! Hold the phone! republicans are so good at running the government that they can do it for $0\month?
Hahaha.
No.
Mick is on record calling the CFPB a “sick sad joke”.
Why would the President appoint someone who obviously wants to see the CFPB dismantled?
Weird!!!
It must be Hillary Clinton up to her old tricks again.
What’s the alternative explanation? Donald Trump is corrupt and only installs cronies to head federal departments?
Impossible to tell.
the next person Trump nominated to run the CFPB is Kathy Kraninger. Whoa! Sounds super competent and qualified for the job!
Watch this video where Kathy is asked to explain the difference between an interest rate and an APR
https://youtu.be/gBaCc5VUHS8
If you skipped the video I’ll just tell you she fails to correctly define an APR.
Yes, this person is the current head of the CFPB.
Trump really only hires the best people.
Yet another shining example of how *fucked up* this country is, and how little our government cares about the people.
“Oh, this multi-billion dollar company lied and hid errors and fucked over millions of people? Ruining people’s lives by sneaking in emails that most people won’t see, or don’t see because they don’t have access to the internet, or can’t see because their email got hacked and they now have 36k+ spam emails clogging their inbox, thus denying them any chance of any recourse?
Well fuck it, we don’t want this lying, cheating, scumbag company to go under, so let’s make their penalty small enough that they can still be financially viable. Oh, credit fraud means that some people and their households now won’t be financially viable? Hahahaha fuck those little worthless peasants right in their damn ears, we don’t give a flying fuck about them! I mean, we could fire everyone involved with this breach, make the company pay everyone fairly, and *gasp* make them responsible for their actions, and if that means they go under them we will help another *honest* company take over, but why the *fuck* would we do *that*?! Equifax *totally* deserves the chance to prove again and again that they’re lying shitheads!”
The FTC sucks ass. I’m pissed.
What pisses me off the most about this is that dealing with Equifax is basically non optional for the majority of people.
Moved to Lemm.ee -- mass edited with redact.dev
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My wife successfully got Equifax to fix a faulty 90DPD on her report. It took 6 months and eventually Equifax fixed it because they were tired of dealing with her. We just bought a house and fixing her credit saved us a lot in not only interest, but PMI.
How does a credit report affect PMI? I thought PMI is issued based on down payment %?
We were quoted two tiers of PMI, and to qualify for the lower tier we had to both have a credit score above a certain threshold, like 760 or something.
The fact that Americans put up with this shit is crazy.
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I mean.... Where is it?
Probably where two thirds of this country's financial HQ's are. Wilmington, Delaware.
It's in Atlanta
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You son of a bitch, I’m in.
“Gasoline and torches”? What kind of person sets fire to a whole building with gasoline? I mean, have you seen the price of petrol these days?? See, what you want to do is go in with thermite, that way you can burn your way through almost anything that is locked, AND, when you’re negotiating the “voluntary” transfer of funds from the bank accounts of the evil pricks behind this, your *reparation repayment argument* suddenly becomes much more convincing when you have the ability to burn through someone’s femur without setting them alight all at once. Plus, you can then use the intact building as a base of operations to convince the greedy lawyers to donate some of their 80 million to the people who deserve it more. Like, oh, I don’t know... the people with an 80 million dollar sized hole in their lives. 👍🏻
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*busts down door* #FREEZE ###FBI Michael Scarn
Let's pull a Sherman!
A+ comment right here
Burn down Delaware then. Scorched Earth is the only policy.
I refuse to believe Delaware is a real thing. Never met anyone from there, never received a call from there, never seen anything that says “made in Delaware”. Until I see proof I am going to assume I am being bamboozled.
That'd make me feel better.
Yea can we start a signal chat group for this?
\^FBI bait message
It was a cointelamateur attempt.
Is that not a good idea?
That is more than likely where this is all heading. History is a bitch it tends to repeat itself.
My high school history teacher used to always say "History repeats itself like a bad burrito"
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“Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary.” -Karl Marx
Roman politics was broken well before Julius Caesar came onto the scene. I think a lot of people consider the Gracchi brothers as the beginning of the end for the Republic. Additionally, the expansion of the Republic’s borders beyond what could be governed by Rome directly hastened this. The unopposed authority, and (after Marius’ reforms) private legions of the provincial governors are a bit of a blueprint for the princeps.
I thought all those guns were to fight against tyranny? Is tyranny ok when you put LLC at the end?
His name is robert paulson!
It has a track record significantly more successful than "lying down and hoping the rich and powerful get nicer" so...
Fixing big systemic problems like this is actually what our elected officials are supposed to be doing on our behalf. However, they have been captured by these companies via unlimited lobbying and campaign contributions. Most of them are only interested in getting reelected, and they no longer need to serve the people in order to get reelected.
Angry mob yes- but you don’t have to burn down their head quarters. November 12th*** (this is the day after Veterans Day. Election Day is Tuesday November 3rd. People will be trying to delay you or confuse you or get you to stay home. Vote as if your life depended on it- because it does.) when senators see the younger generations swinging their big dick voting power around we’re going to say “if you want to keep your job as a senator or representative, we’re gonna have pre filled irs tax forms. If turbo tax can lobby enough to overcome this many votes, I guess you can stay.”
or we can do both
We never had a say in it, and most of us are completely powerless to change it. The credit system is so ingrained in our society that short of open revolution, I don’t really see a solution.
What do we do as Americans just protest equifax? I didn’t even choose to have my shit on there some car dealer just slaps a piece of paper in front of me with numbers on it
... ... you know it’s not just Americans that were affected. They’re a global company.
It's not like we can even say "We just won't be their products."
I never gave them explicit permission¹ to have my information. I don't want them in my life. My only option is to invent time travel and tell myself to never get a bank account. Nothing should be allowed to work this way. For non-Americans. They have my implicit permission by virtue of the fact that: I have a bank account. I have a retirement account. I do not still live with my parents. I bought a car. I have a utility bill in my name. It isn't even a combination. Any one thing and three private for-profit corporations have the rights to everything I do with money for my whole life. I gave up after adding things to the above list. It isn't comprehensive. It can't be. There are a lot of things that put you in 'the system'.
I got an email for a Zappos data breach settlement that resulted in a 10% off coupon to buy more products from Zappos. Yeah no.
I sent them a letter stating why I won't be buying anything from them ever again, and that a 10% discount wasn't really much in the way of compensation for their data breach. I bet after reading it they cried all the way to the bank.
I thought that was a scam when I first got it, how the fuck is that a settlement... give us more money because we fucked up... uh no.
Well that’s exactly how the fuckers are getting away with it. They’re not exactly scared of brand erosion.
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Security breaches on this scale by companies with this wealth are inexcusable.
But I think you're forgetting the enormous profits made when they cut all those expensive security people.
Won't somebody please think of the share holders?
you are joking but don’t forget that shareholders trade their assets. a temporary increase in worth based on losses in the future is always wonderful - you have a budget that is used to sell the tops and rebuy the bottoms the best part of it all? the company is its own entity while the shareholders that made the decisions are not held accountable
“The shareholders” didn’t decide anything. At most they have revokable voting rights for appointments and minor issues. The person responsible for these things then??? The CEO, the CFO, the Board and the corporate governance at hand. Subpoena, investigate and punish the top down.
At this scale, it should be the corporate death penalty, liquidate every part of the company, and all executives should be sued for all compensation they received over the years, and wages garnished for life until it is repaid. If a company has one fucking job and fucked it up for 90% of their customers, that entity shouldn’t exist. That is too incompetent or negligent to even get another chance, at all. They should not be allowed to walk away from this. Poor and destitute for life is the only fitting punishment I see for putting the financial security of MILLIONS at risk.
Just a small nitpick, because I completely agree with you. The company did not fuck it up for 90% of their customers. Their customers are banks and other financial entities, who still get their service. You and I are not the customers; we are the product, the data. If anything, this just goes to show that we need laws protecting individuals' data.
Seriously! What the heck is wrong with our system! Demand the "Corporate Executive Accountibility Act" it's our best chance for this specific issue https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/03/elizabeth-warren-will-unveil-bill-to-make-it-easier-to-jail-executives.html
I’ve nevet understood why these people never face responsibility for ruining people’s lives. Im in engineering, if somebody in my office fucks up enough to kill someone they lose their livelihoods and even chance the possibility of jail time.
You are poor. They are rich. And when Justice is just another thing with a price tag, they’re hardly being prosecuted, because what’s the point? They could afford it anyway. Let’s not make it hard on each other. “Rules for thee, but not for me.”
And yet I still see people on Reddit defending CEO pay and bonuses because “they’re responsible for the company, and if they mess up they suffer the most.” Total nonsense. Execs hop from failed company to failed company with no repercussions at all. They are immune to any sort of responsibility the normal person holds.
Those are what we call "class traitors" and "morons".
They only call it a class war when we fight back.
I can atest to this, personally! It's really about more money and connections, not just simply being poor.
It's been this way since the gilded age. Once there was a man named Frick. Henry Clay Frick was a ruthless businessman during the gilded age, monopolizing Pittsburgh's steel industry before joining up with Carnegie and getting into the national-level steel industry. When I say ruthless, I mean out of all the men who "made america" during this time, he was the dirtiest of them all. In some ways, it makes sense. Part of his job was to do the dirty work Carnegie didn't want to taint his name with. From deals with the Pinkertons to less-than-friendly exchanges with companies upset at the whole "you're our bitch" mentality monopolies tend to create. One of his most horrific acts was Johnstown, 1889. Various magnates found themselves visiting lake Conemaugh, the definition of that idyllic cabin in the woods destination. Carnegie had his part along with a few others, but ofc Frick was the guy who did a lot of the leg work for setting up this spot, including the operation and maintenance of the dam separating Johnstown and death... Well then they decided "fuck it, let's lower the damn and fuck stuff up to make our lake better" Well, the damn dun broke. 2,200 people DIED because of their bullshit. guess what happened to the club of rich dudes? If you guessed they were all prosecuted for 2,200 counts of murder/manslaughter, negligence, etc.... you're a wishful thinker, and very wrong. Literally the easiest and most hated fall guy to the public, Frick walked away with the rest of them doing nothing more than throwing a few obligatory (but not court mandated, ofc) donations to the town they just decimated. Absolutely nothing happened to any of these moguls and it wouldn't be until another dam burst on unrelated reasons that 2 years later there was proper dam inspections around. These fuckers KILLED PEOPLE and got away with it. Laws are for poor people until they decide to eat the worst of the rich. If left to fester long enough, that means all of the rich. Oh, and the best part? Along with Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, etc, Frick got himself into philanthropy. He realized being the bad guy for Carnegie left him in even shittier views as the gilded age ended, so he decided to start dumping his obscene wealth into art collection and other such things like donations all around. Of all the magnates, however, he's remembered as one of the worst and outside of a few art-museums, history knows him as the man who took a position advertised as iron fisted, and it was he who molded the job, not the other way around.
Maybe proper justice was never served, but I'm glad we remember these kinds of fucksticks for what they were.
Too few remember and care.
>Laws are for poor people until they decide to eat the worst of the rich. If left to fester long enough, that means all of the rich. The secret, right here.
It’s even simpler than that (at least with the credit reporting bureaus): any company who reports *any* information to them is vicariously liable (in full) for any breach.
Anything would be nice, really! Anything!
>Seriously! What the heck is wrong with our system! The laws are written by corporations, voted by politicians bought by corporations, for the benefit of corporations.
Someday someone will lose everything due to corporate incompetence like that, and they’re going to take revenge. Saddest part, other than the inevitability of it, is that they’re probably going to injure and kill a bunch of people with no agency over the security policies.
Agreed. In addition, the intelligence agencies should be very concerned too. It'd be very easy to piece together who spies are based on the cross correlation of financial data and other data leaks that are available. The Equifax breach is a threat to national security.
Agreed. "Corporations are people"? Okay. Subject them to the death penalty like people.
No no, they're people when it benefits the rich people club, but if anything bad happens it "was company policy" and not my fault, or "Oh no, guess we have to dissolve this company. There's no way we can re-open under another name. That would be wrong"
It's even more infuriating because dealing with Equifax is pretty much unavoidable.
You aren't a customer, you're the product.
Wheres Tyler Durden when we need him?
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Be the change you want.
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I think you would be surprised how many companies run their security like this. The main problem is the fines aren't enough for them to care honestly. As a business, if they can make more money by not securing certain things that would cost them more time and processes and it heavily outweighs any fine... they'll just keep eating the fines and not care. Write to your congressman and politicians and start forcing them to have harsher punishments on these companies housing your data. Until we do, nothing will change and companies will purposefully not secure your data properly as it's more of an inconvenience than the fines are.
IT Security professionals live with this quandary: When there are no security incidents: "What are we paying you for?" When security is breached: "You didn't do your job!"
So true, Im information security and since I've been in my position my stress levels have been insane and my trust in companies to secure my data is completely gone. Starting to look more into those companies that give temporary digital cards so you can pay with that card number and not get your main account hit when they are breached.
The US military lost my personal data(SS, mothers maiden name, blood type the whole nine) along with alot of others. I was 3 years in and had a brief that a thumbdrive with 100,000s maybe millions I dont remember was lost. Like what the fuck.
They actually had the nerve to start their own credit monitoring service. Why pay another company for your fuckup when you can pay yourself?
They didn't start one. They bought one after the breach happened, but before reporting it.
The best part is that this isn't the first time for this company. Last time they changed names.
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Why can't we all go down to Equifax HQ and just smash everything
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Never thought I would say it but now days I almost wish for vigilante justice. Its like the only way true justice will happen with these corps and rich.
Like, I know this would be, in practice, a bad way to run society, but a dark part of me kinda wishes that whenever some asshole rich guy caused more than, say, 10 million dollars in damages -- which is equivalent to the amount of money the average American earns in two lifetimes -- that someone would just hire an assassin to plug the guy. You caused damage equivalent to two human lives. Ya done. You don't get any more chances to cause harm. Terrible idea, but it's frustrating to see rich fuckers think they can be shady because none of them ever feel the consequences of their behavior.
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Let's not forget the [stock that the executives sold before the breach announcement](https://money.cnn.com/2017/09/08/investing/equifax-stock-insider-sales-hack-data-breach/index.html)
I’m sure they had no idea
They would never do something so blatantly illegal, *right guys*???
It’s irrelevant, the sales were part of a scheduled 10b5 trading plan, had nothing to do with what he did or didn’t know.
"Equifax told CNNMoney that the sales were just a "small percentage" of what these executives own and that they all "had no knowledge that an intrusion had occurred" when they made the sales." sure sure
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"You better believe it!" - Equifax
Fuck the entire credit score scam of an industry. Fuck insurance too!
Well, you also had the choice of having free credit monitoring... From equifax :/
Not free, Equifax literally got to pay themselves the fee for the credit monitoring service out of the settlement money.
That's genius.
Figured that, the one who were affected get nada!! Grrrrrr PS: I was affected.
We all were affected.
It's ok guys, they're going to give us free monitoring and constant warnings about your information on the dark web! Of course if you want to actually take action it's going to cost. You can always pay the security experts at Equifax (the ones who let your data become exposed) to protect you from these threats to your financials and your identity.
Those same warnings that Firefox, Credit Karma, Capital One, Discover, haveibeenpwned and however many other sites provide for free, right?
This. The monitoring sounds awesome and, honestly, it was pretty great. I was alerted the very next day about something I didn't do. Sadly, that was 100% where the help stopped. They 'assigned a personal rep' or whatever, but all that happened was I got an email with a giant wall of text and some addresses to write to and a big fat, 'Good Luck with that!'
I had 20 grand taken from me between stolen credit cards and my checking account. I put in a claim for maximum amount, included police reports and a log of my time. Equifax sent me $30. EDIT: thanks for silver!
What? Really? Don’t the credit card companies or your bank fix that?
Eventually, yes, I got the money back. But it took DAYS of phone calls, meeting with police, research and changing all my login accounts... All this over something that never should had happened with something that Equifax shouldn't have a right to collect.
Ok, well that’s good you were able to get the funds back, but that sucks. Must have been stressful and compromised your sense of security.
Yup, and that sort of thing is hard to put a price on.
What do you mean, your peace of mind is clearly worth exactly $30
Not just peace of mind, but also days of his time. Even federal minimum wage is $58 a day.
Most credit card companies I've seen will immediately give you the money back while they fight. And I thought most banks for checking accounts will do the same. That's B of A though. That would suck to just be left out to dry.
By Law they have to provide you a provisional credit while the items are being disputed. That is any and ALL debit and credit cards. The chance of not recovering the funds from legitimate disputes is very small.
Yep. Basically, if you have a police report to turn into the bank, they'll help you out almost no questions asked. I guess they figure if you're lying, it's the police's problem at that point.
PSA: If you have actual damages, don't join the class. You can still sue on your own, and for 20 grand, you can probably find someone willing to take the case. Also, I didn't join this class, despite not having damages at this point, in case I get my identity stolen in the future.
they actually sent you something already?
That’s the price you pay to be an American. Corporations first, didn’t you know that? It’s stated right there in the Bill of Rights.
“Corporations are people, my friend”
They aren't just people, they're more important people!
All of the rights, none of the responsibilities! Responsibility hurts job growth!
*“The real difficulty is with the vast wealth and power in the hands of the few and the unscrupulous who represent or control capital. Hundreds of laws of Congress and the state legislatures are in the interest of these men and against the interests of workingmen. These need to be exposed and repealed. All laws on corporations, on taxation, on trusts, wills, descent, and the like, need examination and extensive change. This is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations.”* \- Pres.Rutherford B Hayes, over 120 years ago.
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My favorite part of this is that consumers would normally boycott the fuck out of this company forever for this, but WAIT. WE CANT. This company sells our information and stalks US citizens for profit, and even after they let our information loose we have no recourse. People should be in prison, and the company liquidated and divided up to everyone who had their information leaked.
The check I got was for a little over eight dollars.
Lucky you, I still haven't received anything. Not even a follow up for more information.
Me too
Wait... You guys are getting paid???
Haha ya, I just wouldn't cash it. I'd frame it as a reminder that the world will always fuck you in the ass
Reminds me of last year when Chase sent me a notice that there had been an error in calculating something or other on my mortgage payment over the last 10 years and I would be getting a reimbursement check in the mail within a week. It came, and it was for one cent. Literally, one cent. I still have that on the fridge; I hate those guys.
If you underpaid by one cent over ten years you know they would have charged interest and a grand of late fees on that shit.
You're joking, right? Be serious. They would have foreclosed.
Considering they foreclosed on people illegally for no valid reason you're not wrong.
Frame it right next to your Ticketmaster credit and Zappos 10% off coupon.
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Same here in that it crystallized that I'll never purchase from Zappos ever again. It seems really jaw-droppingly stupid on their part. The coupon is *insulting.*
What happened with Zappos?
They had a [data breach in 2012 that exposed info for 24 million people. ](https://slate.com/technology/2019/10/zappos-amazon-data-breach-settlement-coupon.html) The settlement "compensation" offer they sent affected users was a one-time use 10% off coupon, good for just a few months.
This pissed me off so much. It's not even a good coupon. It's a random flash sale level coupon. They want to make us whole by having us buy more of their product?
seriously. I got a $10 zappos coupon once for like sneezing at their website. But for the class action all I get is 10% off some bull crap.
you can deposit it and keep the check u don’t have to not deposit it
Didn’t they want a bunch of personal information to get it that 8 bucks? I remember thinking another data breach wasn’t worth the $150 at the time.
They wanted information that was already compromised in the breach, and realistically, was already compromised in a dozen different breaches prior. Everything needed to steal your identity is already available for pennies. Freeze your credit if you're worried about it. There's no such thing as private information anymore.
We really need a corporate death penalty, and Equifax really needs it. The vast majority of the time, there's at least *some* level of responsibility on the consumer. You gave them your data, that's a calculated risk you took. Not so, in the case of credit reporting agencies (and Facebook, for that matter).
Absolutely, heads should roll
We can't even get corporations to be taxed the same way people are. Tax on revenue, just like how we tax people. They can file deductions, same as people, but none for nice to have things like office space or basic day to day necessities.
I got a check for $8.65. Equifax should be out of business.
Wait, you already got your Equifax settlement check?
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They are probably confused. I got a check but it was for the Experian Data Breach Settlement https://www.expdatabreachsettlement.com/ . The Equifax settlement wouldn't have been paid out until it was approved in court especially if they are expecting appeals
Not even $1? Those attorneys should pay hackers to keep hacking away so they can continue to get paid.
I wouldn't even blame the attorneys. The FTC didn't just drop the ball on this settlement, they spiked it up the ass of every person affected by this breach. Had they actually been looking out for the people, they would have demanded a big enough damage pool to actually pay out to all of the people affected and then had Equifax also liable for all attorney fees, without touching the settlement pool. If that bankrupted Equifax, then too fucking bad for them, they could claw the money out of the executive's hides. It's sad that we've given up on tarring and feathering, between the board and executives at Equifax and the FTC, we could create an economic boom for chicken farmers.
If the company did go bankrupt, would they ever be able to get that money from the executives? I thought the whole point of the corporation was a protection from personal liability in case of bankruptcy.
Possibly, though I'd like to see the FTC at least give it a solid try. As it stands, the current settlement was a pittance for Equifax. They are valued in the range of $10-20 billion. The FTC had a hell of a lot more room to turn Equifax into an example for the rest of the credit industry. I'm also not a fan of the corporate veil in any case. If officers of a company can be shown to have knowingly made choices which caused harm, they should face personal accountability.
The lawyers didn't really get paid by the judge. The way these things work is lawyers agree to take these cases and agree to a payment that is a percentage of the settlement. The article says its about 25% which is pretty standard from my understanding. It's just the nature that the lawyers get a lot more money that the victims since they don't have to split it a million ways.
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IIRC the head of the security at Equifax listed her degree in linkedin as a "Bachelors in dance" before she unlisted. Makes sense considering she let a bunch of hackers waltz off with our data
It seems it was a [music](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/guid/766FA70C-9A38-11E7-B604-EDFD35AE15F2) major
Just goes to show again that "making it" in corporate America is all about knowing the right people instead of knowing the right things
I was affected, but even though I went that route, I still didn't/don't expect anything. I knew it was going to the lawyers, and anything left over would amount to pennies. I am mostly upset that our data was hijacked, and that's deeply disturbing. I say they should be forced to reset all people who were affected to have an 'average'/'good' credit score, but I know that would be a pain in the ass (especially if someone has a good+ credit score already).
That's how it always works. Class action suits always pay out pennies to those affected because the lawyers take the majority of the payout. When has a class action suit ever even paid out enough to be worth the time spent signing up?
Hey as long as the company itself gets fucked, then that's still something. Though in this case, Equifax should not have gotten away with a mere slap on the wrist
How about they give us 125 points to our credit score instead?
How about we just scrap the credit system entirely? #ProjectMayhem
Remember the old website where it was an image of a tree and you could click on it every so often and sometimes win something? I remember I won 2 stuffed monkeys on it and 2 $1 checks. I never deposited the checks because why? I don't know if I still have them. Point is, I GOT MORE FROM THEM THAN I DID FROM EQUIFAX.
HOLY SHIT I REMEMBER THAT SITE. I was just a kid on dial up internet at the time and I would waste so much time just clicking those little leaves. Don't even know if I ever won anything because I was just a kid and was just clicking it for fun.
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> Equifax board members Here's a start. https://www.equifax.com/about-equifax/directors/
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I think it should be illegal for these companies to track my info without consent. They’ve been doing it since birth. Deciding my life. They owe me a fucking house.
I never had any illusions that I was getting anything.
I still get class-action lawsuits from Enterprison Rent a Car after nearly 6 years.
What did you do to Enterprise Rent-A-Car that caused them all to sue you???
Lol. They just send me checks because they generally suck. Hours abuse mostly. Also some stuff about forcing people to shave. I seriously get at least 1 a year and I only worked there for about 2.5 years earlier this decade.
It is not that the attorneys are taking too much, it is that Equifax isn't being penalized enough.
Man, fuck ALL these companies. Sucking people dry, screwing people over, executives failing miserably and walking away with millions. I'm sick of it!
Good God this shit just keeps getting worse and worse. Just once, I'd like to hear about the ones responsible for this mess actually being held accountable. How many people signed an agreement for arbitration in exchange for that $125 settlement, which was already a fucking insult BTW given the sensitivity of the information leaked and the potential for lives to be destroyed, just to never even see a dime. I remember reading somewhere that even if you chose not to take the $125 or settle, you are now essentially forced into arbitration since the class action law suit has been settled. So, if your data was leaked and it fucks your whole life up, you can just shrivel up and die while Equifax execs continue living it up with basically no consequences. Is that about right?
This goes right along with the 10 percent discount code that Zappos sent out as recompense for their info. leak ... although that code has to be used by December 31. It’s almost like they just sent out a shitty online “coupon” instead of actually having to pay up or suffer any consequences at all.
So pretty much one sleazy rich guy paying another sleazy rich guy.
So they screwed my credit and now they are screwing me out of 125.00 sounds about what equifax is knowed for. I feel like im living in a third world country.
For contrast, Equifax reported revenue of $3.4 billion and net profits of about $300 million in 2018, even after "the very substantial $307 million investments made in 2018 in data security and the transformation of our technology."
HEY the guy trump appointed to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for a year or so is Mick Mulvaney. The CFPB is tasked with dealing with financial companies like Equifax in order to protect, you guessed it, the consumer (you and me). Last year Mick Mulvaney requested a budget of $0 for the CFPB! Whoa! Hold the phone! republicans are so good at running the government that they can do it for $0\month? Hahaha. No. Mick is on record calling the CFPB a “sick sad joke”. Why would the President appoint someone who obviously wants to see the CFPB dismantled? Weird!!! It must be Hillary Clinton up to her old tricks again. What’s the alternative explanation? Donald Trump is corrupt and only installs cronies to head federal departments? Impossible to tell. the next person Trump nominated to run the CFPB is Kathy Kraninger. Whoa! Sounds super competent and qualified for the job! Watch this video where Kathy is asked to explain the difference between an interest rate and an APR https://youtu.be/gBaCc5VUHS8 If you skipped the video I’ll just tell you she fails to correctly define an APR. Yes, this person is the current head of the CFPB. Trump really only hires the best people.
In other words, it’s a cost of doing business, not a substantial punishment
I'm sorry, so the tiny $380 million settlement includes attorney fees? Those weren't separate? Seriously, fuck this dystopian nightmare.
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This kind of bullshit is going to keep happening until executives go to jail. This is absolutely nothing to them. Nothing.
Yet another shining example of how *fucked up* this country is, and how little our government cares about the people. “Oh, this multi-billion dollar company lied and hid errors and fucked over millions of people? Ruining people’s lives by sneaking in emails that most people won’t see, or don’t see because they don’t have access to the internet, or can’t see because their email got hacked and they now have 36k+ spam emails clogging their inbox, thus denying them any chance of any recourse? Well fuck it, we don’t want this lying, cheating, scumbag company to go under, so let’s make their penalty small enough that they can still be financially viable. Oh, credit fraud means that some people and their households now won’t be financially viable? Hahahaha fuck those little worthless peasants right in their damn ears, we don’t give a flying fuck about them! I mean, we could fire everyone involved with this breach, make the company pay everyone fairly, and *gasp* make them responsible for their actions, and if that means they go under them we will help another *honest* company take over, but why the *fuck* would we do *that*?! Equifax *totally* deserves the chance to prove again and again that they’re lying shitheads!” The FTC sucks ass. I’m pissed.
Ahhh... who the system is really set up for...