Arbitration clauses agreed to by who? Do most individuals have any relationship with the credit reporting agencies beyond having their private information siphoned up behind their back? (and trying to keep a handle on that, so that their "credit score" remains favorable?)

I never signed anything with Equifax, but they still have my information. I'm sure the great majority of the ~140M records they have are in a similar position.

Yeah, they ought to apply fraud alert status automatically to everyone who was compromised. Every credit application for the next five years requires they contact you personally for new applications.

Doesn't help for all the other issues this will cause, though.