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A comment on Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack. Parent comment

Re:Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack by matthewmcg on Friday September 08, 2017 @04:26PM (#15203652)
It's a historical fluke. Credit bureaus trace back to agencies that compiled third-party reports on the creditworthiness of business persons. So long as the information collected is accurate (and not defamatory), this type of activity is protected under the first amendment.

See the first segment of this episode of the Backstory podcast for a retelling of how these early agencies worked: http://backstoryradio.org/shows/keeping-tabs-2016/

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Re:Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack by cm2187 on Friday September 08, 2017 @04:36PM (#15203734)
But then what happens if that information becomes inaccurate? (if your credit report shows credit events that aren't yours as a result of a fraud). Doesn't it become a form of defamation?
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Re:Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack by conanbatt on Friday September 08, 2017 @07:07PM (#15204600)
John oliver made a segment about this on how a person was denied a rental contract because one of these agencies said he was a terrorist.

Like really, equifax saying "his score is pretty good, but he IS a terrorist". Sometimes correcting those things take months.

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Re:Equifax Faces Multibillion-Dollar Lawsuit Over Hack by mjcl on Saturday September 09, 2017 @03:28AM (#15205953)
It's ridiculous, but no property management company wants to risk a fine when the cost of checking the OFAC SDN list is so small. I'm not sure if we ever saw a decline due to the OFAC list, so I could easily see it would take a long time for something that unusual to be straightened out.
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