It seems absurd that they only need to allocate $31 million for "alternative payments" while the old CEO leaves with close to $20 million in bonuses [0], while the rest of the money in the settlement is basically reserved for them to pay themselves for their "free" credit monitoring.<p>This whole situation was a good opportunity to set a precedent for companies not taking data security seriously. But they've instead shown everyone that you can really just ignore all of that and hope it's never discovered - even if it is, it's really just a light slap on the wrist. Combining this with the recent Facebook fine [1], it really makes me think that the FTC has become a complete joke.<p>[0]: <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/equifax-data-breach-settlement-disgraced-former-ceo-getting-nearly-20-million-in-bonuses-after-the-hack/" rel="nofollow">https://www.cbsnews.com/news/equifax-data-breach-settlement-...</a><p>[1]: <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/12/20692524/facebook-five-billion-ftc-fine-embarrassing-joke" rel="nofollow">https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/12/20692524/facebook-five-bi...</a>
$31 million is a laughably small amount of money to set aside for direct settlements in the biggest hack in all of history. Add three zeroes to that, probably still not enough.<p>I spent three days figuring out this nightmarish credit reporting system and helping friends and family place freezes, as well as educating them to avoid all the horrible dark patterns on Equifax's site. What I want is about $2000 and the ability to opt out of them owning and reselling my personal data completely. I don't need credit monitoring, I don't need credit period anymore, why am I forced into accepting the unlimited risk of them owning all my data so that this private company can keep operating?
So this is some bullshit, if FB can get hit with a $5 Billion dollar fine then I think we can scape up a little more than $31 Million from a company with even less scruples than Facebook...<p>Also I already signed up for the $125 (when there was ZERO mention it might not be paid out) so what am I supposed to do?<p>God I really wish they had just put down Equifax (as in killed the whole company) as a statement to other companies: PROTECT YOUR DATA or we are coming for you.<p>And NO I don't want their monitoring, if they couldn't keep my info safe to start with why would I trust them with monitoring.
The FTC's FAQ that was updated:<p><a href="https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/refunds/equifax-data-breach-settlement" rel="nofollow">https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/refunds/eq...</a><p>> 5. I thought I could choose $125 instead of free credit monitoring. What happened?<p>> The public response to the settlement has been overwhelming. Millions of people have visited this site in just the first week. Because the total amount available for these alternative payments is $31 million, each person who takes the money option is going to get a very small amount. Nowhere near the $125 they could have gotten if there hadn’t been such an enormous number of claims filed.<p>> The free credit monitoring provides a much better value, and everyone whose information was exposed can take advantage of it. If your information was exposed in the data breach, and you file a valid claim before the deadline, you are guaranteed at least four years of free monitoring at all three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) and $1,000,000 of identity theft insurance, among other benefits. The market value of this product is hundreds of dollars per year.<p>> You can still choose the cash option on the claim form, but you will be disappointed with the amount you receive and you won’t get the free credit monitoring.<p>For a little math, $31 million only makes it to 248,000 claims of the 150,000,000 people affected before it starts diluting.
"You might also be disappointed to learn that if you sign up for Equifax credit monitoring, they sell your data + require binding arbitration <a href="https://www.equifax.com/assets/corp/consumer-privacy-notice.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.equifax.com/assets/corp/consumer-privacy-notice....</a> <a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EA1KK-vUwAAmrnd.jpg"[0]" rel="nofollow">https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EA1KK-vUwAAmrnd.jpg"[0]</a><p>[0]<a href="https://twitter.com/hoofnagle/status/1156662788221050881" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/hoofnagle/status/1156662788221050881</a>
Nothing like being forced to use a company, who leaks your very important information, who gets set a tiny amount of money to pay out for damages, only to be told not to take it because that money might not be enough to pay everyone who was affected.
I trust Equifax even less to monitor my credit safely than to pay out the money they owe to consumers for their years of deception in business practices.
Supposedly the settlement encourages me to trust Equifax to monitor my tradelines through "free credit monitoring"... but I can't trust the same company to monitor the safety of that very same data.<p>Yeah, this makes a <i>lot</i> of sense...
This settlement itself is a scam. It looks like a cunningly smart settlement announcement.<p>Offer something that looks like a worthy settlement, drive millions of people to get the cash option, then claim that too many are going for the cash option, so they'll all get peanuts now (if 10 million chose cash option and only 31 million is available, then it's $3 per head?).<p>That's a cheap way to get rid of any liability in the future.<p>Facebook didn't get hacked, and was fined $5 billion (do affected facebook users get anything from that amount? not sure)<p>Equifax leaked extremely important details of persons, and was fined peanuts. How does this make sense?
We need The Corporate Death Penalty and we need to be able to enforce it in such a way that intangible assets can't be copied over to another entity which is left to continue operations. Hard assets can be auctioned and used to pay unemployment claims and restitution.<p>Jail time for senior leadership would be nice too.
Dear FTC,<p>Duly noted that poor planing may lead to the exhaustion of the paltry reserves Equifax set up for the actual victims of its crimes.<p>How about some real justice then?
The most insane thing is that they are <i>asking you to take the bet</i> that Equifax and companies like them will screw this up again by calling it a better deal.
"The FTC said Wednesday that consumers rushing to get a $125 check from Equifax as restitution for its 2017 cybersecurity breach should consider the credit monitoring option because the company could run out of money before satisfying all the claims."<p>As someone that constantly watches credit brokers abuse a broken system, I'm okay with this. Let their CEOs get their parachute pay. while their reputations are publicly and privately castrated.<p>Honestly, as consumers, we can go after that too, if we really want.