Posted on 10/08/2017 6:43:15 AM PDT by ptsal
The emails have landed in my inbox, one every other day or so since Equifax revealed that cyberthieves had helped themselves to the Social Security numbers and dates of birth of more than 140 million Americans in the company’s files.
**snip**I want out of Equifax’s system. That company no longer has permission to make money off my personal data. I want them to delete my file and never start a new one.
**snip**So, can you dump Equifax? And if not, shouldn’t you be able to?
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
My father joked that following the Ramsey plan to get out of debt such that his credit report is blank is the best protection he has.
I brought up that his identity could still get stolen.
“Let’s see them try to get a credit card given my blank report.”
“I really hope not.”
Fine, given what they've allowed to transpire, it seems to me that the government should put Eqjuifax into receivership and kill it permanently. I mean it's not like this breach wasn't preventable. They have, by their actions (or more correctly inactions) irreversibly harmed 140 million people. And as a consequence, have forfeited their ability to run their business. They need to be "Enroned."
This evil mis-use of our personal info must end. (Gloablist) corporate _USA_ fails to care about out info on a regular basis.
What about my idea of putting any cash reserves in CDs at a local bank, doing no transactions involving them online?
I only wish you were right. I work for the govt. The govt can take a simple five step process and turn it into a quagmire. CYA was invented by bureaucrat.
Excellent summary.
And just to add another example of massive power the agencies unilaterally have over us:
Let’s say you had a $30 bill from a dentist. Because the temp dope in the dental office misspelled your name and address, you never got the bill and the dumshxt couldn’t contact you. So they put the bill out for collection, and that $30 collection account shows up on all 3 of the credit agencies.
You have $8 million in the Big Bank you use, and decide you want to buy a vacation home, don’t want to use all your cash, and go in to your bank for a $3 million loan on a $6 million home.
From that $30 collection account, your FICO credit score on all 3 agencies just went from a perfect 800+ to under-650 deadbeat status, no matter that you’ve paid back several million-dollar RE loans, several $200k auto loans, thousands of dollars in credit cards you pay monthly, and still have $5 million in the bank. The logrythms they use to predict your credit-worthiness are of course so ingenius, you know...
Your rate on that prospective loan just went from 3.8% to over 5% because of that $30 collection caused by dental dumshxt.
Now if the bank has an actual person underwriting your loan request, you’ll get your loan, but the Big Bank may have to go through 25 layers of bureaucracy to do it. And that’s only because you have that big bank account.
Credit reporting agencies OWN applicants, and while you are absolutely right that it makes credit affordable and generally is good for that reason, the power they have over your personal financial plan (when some idiot at a dumshxt dental office screws up) is just mind-numbing.
This example isn’t about me (unfortunately lol) but in my job, I personally have witnessed similar scenarios often. And while the 1-percenters can say it’s more ridiculous in their case, it hurts thousands of us ‘little guys’ far worse.
There is a lot of righteous anger out there about the Equifax security breach, and I am not arguing against it.
The point that goes under the radar in this is that personal information security has been violated in major systematic hacks for a long time (decades) and it’s time for a major revamp of personal identification. SSN’s were developed in the 1930’s when there was no consideration of modern information security. So many databases and security systems rely on SSN’s and those have been spread far and wide. Even before the Equifax hack, this was true.
In the example of the dental office scenario you suggested - the real risk is that the lowly paid office staff person is likely selling your personal ID, including SSN to identity fraudsters. Hospitals, medical providers and dental clinics are good sources for fraud artists, and they do not have to hack in - they can just bribe an employee.
Some thought needs to be put into a secure biometric id system that would replace SSN as key identification. The problem with that was on display in the Senate interrogation of the former Equifax CEO - and is also visible in the investigation of the Russian hacking into the 2016 election. To wit - very few in the Senate or the House have any basic understanding of modern information technology. You can hear it in the way they frame questions. How can you expect good policy to emerge from folks who have no understanding of the problem?
The whole credit reporting business is a fraud. Your credit scores vary so widely between credit bureaus that scores are a farce. Incorrect or even false information on your report take a huge effort to get corrected. My wife and I have experienced this first hand. One credit bureau had one of my wife’s school loans as delinquent when it had been fully paid off. Despite submitting evidence that it was paid they refused to remove the error...just listed it as contested. Another credit bureau listed charge accounts that had been paid off and closed for twenty years. Again the process of getting this corrected took darn near legal action. While I do not often favor Congressional action, this is one case where Congress should act and clean up this mess.
All good points.
The credit bureaus are all screwed-up.
The Equifax snafu was just the tip of the iceberg.
I tried the call-in route with Equifax and ran into a automated response saying that my request could NOT be completed, but I had already typed in all of critical personal identifiers. Then, the choice to snail mail the same material plus a copies of utility bills.
My conclusion is the whole object of the recent game was to rebuild the screwed-up data with a fresh set of hard copies. Shamefully, corrupt and deceitful, IMHO.
I did NOT give these companies permission to gather and store my personal data. I feel violated by their sloppy business practices.
Who do I sue?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.