Is anyone else livid that we are forced to pay out $10 per credit agency to protect data we never wanted them to have anyway and they were the ones who leaked without our permission?
Then every time we want someone to access that data in the future we'll have to pay again unless we can prove we have been the victim of identity theft. Yet somehow having all the data that can be used to impersonate me when opening a bank account stolen from Equifax's servers isn't determined to be identity theft.
Doesn't this feel like a RICO racketeering shake down?
Or it could be a remix of a 1980s J Geils Band hit:
My blood runs cold,
my identity has just been told,
to hackers on the Internet
Hackers on the Internet
So they think I'm a stupid clown
This is an Equifax shake down!
I hope that when this issue's gone
I'll still have money to keep clothes on
Take your ID, yes they will
They'll take your car and drive it
They'll take it to a motel room
And rip you off in private
A part of me has just been ripped
The dollars from my bank are stripped
Oh no, I can't stop it
Equifax protection I gotta buy it
My blood runs cold,
my identity has just been told,
to hackers on the Internet
Hackers on the Internet
Either way it is clear Equifax doesn't give a damn about their reputation and the government doesn't care about how bad it is before shoveling money at them. And as John Oliver pointed out no company has said they will stop using this negligent company that is so flagrantly careless with consumer data. Where is the outrage? Couldn't a single bank, finance company, credit-card company or whatever take a stance and say FRO Equifax, you're not trustworthy?
Maybe they don't do that because Equifax already has tons of dirt on all their corporate customers and their bad data management practices? After all after every identity theft Equifax and the others are probably going to find out about it sooner or later and figure out who is to blame. Plus banks and other financial institutions are probably having to call up the credit rating agencies and arrange deals for their customers after every big hack they discover.
Also, how do we know the credit rating industries didn't just decide this was an easy way to make a few billion scaming consumers for identity theft protection services either directly or via other companies that pay them for that service? Then they faked or staged then entire event. After all what do they care? It's not like consumers have any power to do anything about it with the government in the financial sector's back pockets.
Certainly, the other two credit company are all minting $10 per consumer for no effort at all. Maybe they are in on the game too? This is their version of the airlines charging for checking a bag or reserving a seat. Mark my word, before too long we'll see the other agencies get hacked too.
All smells like one giant stinky colluding kartel of consumer-f**kery to me. I'll just let Oliver tell it like it is...