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Equifax didn't send you that email. If you read further down in the e-mail it even says "This email is from the Court-appointed settlement administrator, not Eq

by harryh 7y ago

Equifax didn't send you that email. If you read further down in the e-mail it even says "This email is from the Court-appointed settlement administrator, not Equifax."

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
aloknnikhil 7y ago
Fair enough. That just makes the whole thing even worse. There's basically no hope in receiving the compensation anymore.
- harryh 7y ago
  The vast majority of the settlement is designated for people who experience actual harm (identity theft of some kind basically) from the breach. It's perfectly reasonable that people who's lives haven't been negatively impacted in any real way don't receive anything more than a token payment.
  - aloknnikhil 7y ago
    The alternative compensations was set at $31 million. And the cash compensations per person caps out at $20,000. If we start with this cap, the settlement was supposed to benefit only 1,550 individuals out of the 148 million records that were breached. Even if you assume just $125 per person, that number only benefits 248,000. So the number of people benefiting from this range between 1,550 and 248,000, if the original settlement claims were to be upheld. Instead, every claimant is now being asked to get credit monitoring from the same company that couldn't secure the records. To be fair, the FTC does suggest getting an alternative from Experian, but only in the FAQ.
    - harryh 7y ago
      The 31 million is for the people that haven't experienced any identity theft. This is the money being split up by all the people making $125 claims. The total pool to pay out claims to consumer is 425 million. Subtracting the 31M that leaves 394 million for people who experience real harm. The $20,000 cap per person is for people drawing money from this pool.
      - aloknnikhil 7y ago
        Um, the FTC says otherwise. > For consumers impacted by the Equifax breach, today’s settlement will make available up to $425 million for time and money they spent to protect themselves from potential threats of identity theft or addressing incidents of identity theft as a result of the breach. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/07/equifax-pay-575-million-part-settlement-ftc-cfpb-states-related https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/07/equif... That consumer fund of $425 million was "supposed" to also cover protection from any potential incidents of identity theft. So, let's go with this pool then. Assuming there are 21,250 valid claims qualifying for the cap, is the settlement complete? There's no one left to compensate? I'd say clearly not. Are you willing to bet that only 0.01% of the breached credentials were misused? How did they even arrive at this number? Let's say we assume, it really is a number lower than that. With whatever's left, I'd be willing to bet, a significant number would not trust Equifax with monitoring anymore. Perhaps they even bought credit monitoring as a reaction to the breach. How do you compensate that? Which ever way you want to slice this, it's clearly insufficient.
        harryh 7y ago
        That FTC statement says exactly what I said: There is a 425 million pool. It's to be used for: 1) "time and money they spent to protect themselves from potential threats of identity theft" (the 31 million part) OR 2) "addressing incidents of identity theft as a result of the breach" (the 394 million part) And yes, at some point both pools can be exhausted at which case there will be no more money for future claims. That's how a settlement works. Since there have currently been exactly 0 incidents of identity theft as a result of the breach it might not be so far fetched to say that there will be plenty of money in the pool to cover any incidents.

by harryh 7y ago

Equifax didn't send you that email. If you read further down in the e-mail it even says "This email is from the Court-appointed settlement administrator, not Equifax."

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

aloknnikhil 7y ago

Fair enough. That just makes the whole thing even worse. There's basically no hope in receiving the compensation anymore.

harryh 7y ago
The vast majority of the settlement is designated for people who experience actual harm (identity theft of some kind basically) from the breach. It's perfectly reasonable that people who's lives haven't been negatively impacted in any real way don't receive anything more than a token payment.
- aloknnikhil 7y ago
  The alternative compensations was set at $31 million. And the cash compensations per person caps out at $20,000. If we start with this cap, the settlement was supposed to benefit only 1,550 individuals out of the 148 million records that were breached. Even if you assume just $125 per person, that number only benefits 248,000. So the number of people benefiting from this range between 1,550 and 248,000, if the original settlement claims were to be upheld. Instead, every claimant is now being asked to get credit monitoring from the same company that couldn't secure the records. To be fair, the FTC does suggest getting an alternative from Experian, but only in the FAQ.
  - harryh 7y ago
    The 31 million is for the people that haven't experienced any identity theft. This is the money being split up by all the people making $125 claims. The total pool to pay out claims to consumer is 425 million. Subtracting the 31M that leaves 394 million for people who experience real harm. The $20,000 cap per person is for people drawing money from this pool.
    - aloknnikhil 7y ago
      Um, the FTC says otherwise. > For consumers impacted by the Equifax breach, today’s settlement will make available up to $425 million for time and money they spent to protect themselves from potential threats of identity theft or addressing incidents of identity theft as a result of the breach. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/07/equifax-pay-575-million-part-settlement-ftc-cfpb-states-related https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2019/07/equif... That consumer fund of $425 million was "supposed" to also cover protection from any potential incidents of identity theft. So, let's go with this pool then. Assuming there are 21,250 valid claims qualifying for the cap, is the settlement complete? There's no one left to compensate? I'd say clearly not. Are you willing to bet that only 0.01% of the breached credentials were misused? How did they even arrive at this number? Let's say we assume, it really is a number lower than that. With whatever's left, I'd be willing to bet, a significant number would not trust Equifax with monitoring anymore. Perhaps they even bought credit monitoring as a reaction to the breach. How do you compensate that? Which ever way you want to slice this, it's clearly insufficient.
      - harryh 7y ago
        That FTC statement says exactly what I said: There is a 425 million pool. It's to be used for: 1) "time and money they spent to protect themselves from potential threats of identity theft" (the 31 million part) OR 2) "addressing incidents of identity theft as a result of the breach" (the 394 million part) And yes, at some point both pools can be exhausted at which case there will be no more money for future claims. That's how a settlement works. Since there have currently been exactly 0 incidents of identity theft as a result of the breach it might not be so far fetched to say that there will be plenty of money in the pool to cover any incidents.