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It seems like companies only get the message when there’s jail time involved. None of the companies would freeze my credit since their web sites said some unspe
by argd678 7y ago
It seems like companies only get the message when there’s jail time involved. None of the companies would freeze my credit since their web sites said some unspecified value couldn’t be verified for me, despite confirming my data was indeed lost. Pretty sure, like other regulations that include jail time, this wouldn’t have happened or their website to freeze my credit would have worked.
- 99052882514569 7y agoI agree. Until someone's ass is on the line, and I mean in terms of prison time and not merely their job, the rational thing to do for a shitty company that never cared for its customers is to continue with that approach.
- kls 7y agoOf note, you and I are not the customers of Equifax, we are the product they are selling.
- fennecfoxen 7y agoToo rhetorical, and not informative. Forecasts of whether you'll make good on a promise to pay money are the product they're selling.
- PonderousBug 7y agoSeriously!
- kls 7y agoJust wanted to make the distinction that we are not the customer therefore, expectation to be treated as a customer are not going to be met. I was highlighting the frame of thinking and context that one should be using when thinking about their relationship with such entities. I could have delved deeper and specified that it is actually aggregate data, about us that is the actual product. My main point (which granted I could have been more clear on), was to emphasis that expectations will not be met if one thinks of themselves as a customer to a credit reporting agency. That is unless they work as an agent of an entity extending credit to consumers. It was not my intention to be rhetorical nor to cast moral judgment, rather just to highlight that the relationship is different than that of a customer/business relationship.
- tathougies 7y agoTotally agree. Courts also need to be less hesitant to disband corporations that break laws or court orders. Too big to fail should go the way of the dodo.
- whamlastxmas 7y agoI also tried to freeze my credit and their website required me to put something in the mail. I did, including sending copies of various documents, and never got any response. I have the same issue with one of the credit reporting bureaus. They refuse to give me my legally required free credit report despite multiple attempts and mailings.
- colejohnson66 7y agoIANAL and I have not tried this, but have heard of it working: would sending a letter threatening a lawsuit get their attention?
- whamlastxmas 7y agoI would have to get an actual lawyer with a lawyer's letterhead for them to care, probably. I don't really want to spend hundreds of dollars to get my free credit report.
- colejohnson66 7y agoWould you still need a lawyer if you went to small claims court? Or would that be extortion?
- whamlastxmas 7y agoI don't have damages to sue for.
- Animats 7y agoRemember that "freecreditreport.com" is a scam. The real FTC-mandated free site is "https://www.annualcreditreport.com" https://www.annualcreditreport.com".
- whamlastxmas 7y agoYep I use that one
- ta20938 7y agoI imagine arresting the Equifax Board of Directors, or similar, would have only have the effect of forcing security breaches back underground.
- takeda 7y agoIt should force better security practices, but I know, it is crazy talk.
- DATACOMMANDER 7y agoI disagree, but I want to be clear that I disagree on practical, not ideological, grounds. As others have pointed out, handing out prison sentences for security breaches would be counterproductive. If we make it financially ruinous, companies are more likely to change their behavior in the way we want then to.
- socalnate1 7y agoWhy is Hacker news so obsessed with sending people to jail? Literally every time any sort of corporation get's fined (for nearly anything), there is a loud call to send people to prison. It's like there is this undercurrent of bloodthirstiness and hatred for large companies and their leaders that get's brought to the surface.
- Ancalagon 7y agoBecause frankly wealthy, successful, rich people like those leading equifax (and many other major corporations) are not punished in the same way normal people are.
- pimmen 7y agoMaybe not jail time but I would really want the board to be personally responsible for what they did. Or, if they can argue that they made sure their corporation had a good security culture, the executives who broke the company regulations need to be personally responsible. Seriously, someone needs to be rehabilitated from this before they can be sent back into society. After someone gets out of jail from grand theft auto they need to understand that what they did was wrong and treating people like that hurts them. I’m not saying the executives need jail time and emotional trauma, but at least some sort of therapy where they’re confronted with the fact that doing this stuff with a hundred million people is not nice and has consequences. They should fundamentally rethink their lives and what brought them to do such a careless thing with people’s data, just like a convicted felon. Edit: made it clearer that I meant the decision makers, not all owners.
- pmiller2 7y agoRe: “owners” You know the “owners” of Equifax are its shareholders, right? You’d end up sending a bunch of index fund managers to jail, among others. I think you mean “officers and board members,” the people who can make day to day decisions for the company. If so, I support it. Lock! Them! Up!
- pimmen 7y ago