Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millions submitted claims

Re:Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millio... by tbyehl on Wednesday July 31, 2019 @11:39PM (#20580900)

How would 'some agency' have anything to say about your credit risk if issuers of credit weren't feeding them information about your credit performance?

What's more bothersome to me is that these companies are scooping up every bit of information they can about me and selling it to anyone. Did I consent to TheWorkNumber? I definitely did not with the first few employers / payroll processors who have sold out my payroll data.

I Google my full name and the first hit is some background check site that shows my birthday, most of addresses I've had since the mid-90s, every family member I've shared an address with since 1999, information on two vehicles I presently own and one former, and that's just the bait to get someone to pay for whatever else they know about me...

'Credit' information is the tip of the iceberg.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millio... by g051051 on Thursday August 01, 2019 @07:16AM (#20582811)

> my birthday, most of addresses I've had since the mid-90s, every family member I've shared an address with since 1999, information on two vehicles I presently own and one former,

Your existence in the world isn't a secret. Every scrap of that is public information. You have a postal address to get mail, you register your car with your state to pay taxes on it, etc.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millio... by tbyehl on Thursday August 01, 2019 @06:01PM (#20588789)

Well, your point overlooks the points I was aiming for.

1. Any of those scraps of data have negligible value by themselves, but when they're aggregated and traded their value is vastly increased.

2. I don't have any choice in how those scraps of data were originally gathered and shared. Should I not to have an address? Pay my taxes? Register my vehicles?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millio... by g051051 on Thursday August 01, 2019 @07:22PM (#20589299)

1. Yes, that's true. The value increases, in that the more data that's available, the better the decisions that can be made.

2. So? Why should you have a choice in it? Those things are classified as public records, available to anyone.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Equifax removed the $125 claim payout option after millio... by mLuby on Thursday August 01, 2019 @09:44AM (#20583614)

But it really doesn't need to be.

Maaaaaybe birth certificates should be public, but why should who owns what car be public? Or who lives at what address?

[ Parent | on HN ]