
Equifax Lobbied to Kill Rule Protecting Victims of Data Breaches - Dowwie
http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/equifax-lobbied-kill-rule-protecting-victims-data-breaches-2587929
======
Top19
Wow if anything this is quite worse than the article says.

You can read Equifax's original letter in all of its Orwellian double-speak:
[https://www.regulations.gov/contentStreamer?documentId=CFPB-...](https://www.regulations.gov/contentStreamer?documentId=CFPB-2016-0020-3961&attachmentNumber=1&contentType=pdf)

It's absolutely shocking to me how many times they use the words "serve the
public interest".

The sell-out that wrote that letter btw is this guy:
[https://www.cov.com/en/professionals/s/david-
stein](https://www.cov.com/en/professionals/s/david-stein)

~~~
sillysaurus3
_The sell-out that wrote that letter btw is this guy:_

I don't think it's a good idea to post someone's personal information in such
a flippant way. He's not a public official and the whole point here is to
witch hunt him. It comes up with his name, phone number and email address.

~~~
yardie
He's a lobbyist. Every interaction he has with the government is a matter of
public record. If he felt he didn't want that information public then he
shouldn't be a lobbyist.

~~~
sillysaurus3
Posting the document is fine. Posting a link to his contact page while calling
him a sellout is probably overstepping. The sole reason for posting the second
link is to say "Look at this person. Isn't he horrible? Here's his name, phone
number and email address."

HN is almost a top-500 website by traffic. A lot of people come here. How
likely is it that people here will start harassing him just because it's easy?
His info is right there.

~~~
jweir
If posting the document is fine - which you didn't read - then posting a link
to his corporate bio is fine. It is in the effing document. It is already
public record.

~~~
sillysaurus3
I'm well aware. There's a major distinction between someone's info being in a
document vs linking to his info with "This guy is a sellout:"

This post is currently #1 on HN. The comment is the top comment. That means
all of HN's traffic that reads comments is going to that person's contact
info.

If you don't agree, just downvote and move on. Personal swipes are
unnecessary.

~~~
enraged_camel
I have to admit, this is some top-level concern trolling.

Judging by his public record, the guy _is_ a sellout, and it is 100% OK to
call him out as such. If he didn't want his contact info to be public, he
should not have put it online. Since he did, it is, again, 100% OK for people
to link to it. That's the entire friggin purpose of a contact page!

~~~
sillysaurus3
I like how I was immediately called a concern troll after saying personal
swipes are unnecessary.

~~~
gvx
The parent didn't call you a concern troll, though. They said "this is some
top-level concern trolling". Criticizing behaviour is not the same thing as
name calling or personal swipes.

~~~
sillysaurus3
"Concern troll: a person who disingenuously expresses concern about an issue
with the intention of undermining or derailing genuine discussion."

Yep, that's name calling. It's also poisonous to the discussion. It's not
"criticizing behavior" when I wasn't doing it.

More importantly, it makes for boring reading. You can see how unproductive
the conversation became.

But whatever. Just have thick skin, right? We can't simply expect people to be
civil.

------
late2part
Perhaps the world would be a better place if Equifax went out of business. The
other two members of the oligarchy could easily shoulder the load.

~~~
Twirrim
There's more than just 3 credit agencies, it's just that those three are the
most reliable of them for credit reports. Given all the complications people
have with even those three, it really doesn't say much for the rest of the
industry.

The odd thing is, I never had to worry about this stuff in the UK. There's no
notion of a credit score or centralised credit agencies that I needed to worry
about. Most loan etc interactions take place with your existing financial
institutions who already have your information on record.

~~~
amyboyd
There definitely are credit ratings in the UK! Try taking out a new credit
card or loan or even getting a phone on contract -- they will almost always
run a credit report check.

Just Google "UK free credit report" \-- there are websites like Noddle that
will show you your report for free.

------
ransom1538
Question. Can't we just let this company die? Do we really need a new law
created by congress (EG HIPAA 2.0). Wont this just destroy the ability to
create startups quickly? I understand it will help lawyers get fat and happy,
but enforcing 'privacy' laws would be a trolling circus.

~~~
samfisher83
Do I really want a startup doing this stuff? Iterate fast and break things? I
would rather just have a heavily regulated industry with a lot of checks and
balances handle very important data like this. Why could you even access the
core databases from the front end? Why isn't the data on completely separate
server where all queries are completely scrubbed and verified?

~~~
ransom1538
Heavily regulated like: airlines, healthcare, public schools, prisons and
drugs?

~~~
samfisher83
Air travel is pretty safe.

~~~
neurotech1
That and if an airline has a major crash, there is a high probability they'll
be out of business relatively soon, or forced to acquire a new brand.

* Pan Am had two 747 crashes in 11 years. Flight 103 & Flight 1736 (Tenerife) although the airline was not directly to blame for either crash.

* TWA 800 (along with 9/11) led to the collapse of airline.

* Valuejet 592 crashed in Florida in 1996, grounded for several months, and then merged with Airtran Airlines in 1997.

------
pmiller2
Well, I think if you compromise the identities and credit files of 150m+
Americans, "full disgorgement of revenue" is a fair punishment.

------
KGIII
I wonder if this act can be used in court to demonstrate intent to remain
negligent? The idea being that they lobbied for this because they had decided
to not invest in better security.

------
justinjlynn
This type of behaviour shouldn't be surprising at all. Corporations are, on
the average, amoral -- a result of human group behaviour. As with wild
animals, one doesn't get mad at them for following their instincts -- yet, one
shouldn't hesitate to carry a gun lest they themselves become lunch.

~~~
transitionnel
Thanks for the grounding simile.

Everyone gives something to take part in and benefit by society. Corporations
form, and seem to refund to their members all that they gave and occasionally
more. We do not measure the externalities well, only the benefits. An
externality estimator would be a great economic tool, does anyone know of one?

~~~
justinjlynn
Some might say that this is a function of government -- that is, the
collective will of society forcing corporations and/or individuals to take
into account otherwise hidden externalities. Though this is a somewhat
contentious view, it makes sense to me.

------
kartan
I will like to know what's the ethical standards of the people that are trying
to push for this legislations. Do they realize that they can be victims
themselves of this kind of abuse? I guess that it's the tragedy of the
commons. They can suffer the consequences, but they are ripping all the
benefits.

When I say the Ferengi* in Star Trek, I found it hilariously unrealistic.
Nowadays the possibility of corporations with rights but without
responsibility is a scary possible future. Reality can surpass fiction.

* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferengi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferengi)

------
glasz
so i have been sort of monitoring this equifax thing. yesterday or the day
before i was thinking "let's see what the aftermath brings to light"...

let's reflect for a moment: biggest leak of personal data of us citizens -
right after the opm debacle. the same company funds strategies detriment to
its customers.

i bet everybody feels like it can't get any worse.

i'm not very old, limited experience but i will predict, brace yourselves,
this will go on and on. _nothing_ will change because people don't fucking
care and the minority who does care does not have the electorial power it
needs to change this system.

i'm waiting for the same thing to happen in germany. it's even worse here
because virtually only one company has the monopoly over private credit
ratings. everybody is annoyed and _nobody_ cares. we have major elections this
month and all those sheep will vote safe.

this is going to be fun. good luck over there, friends.

------
jimjimjim
that place is evil.

Mister Burns style evil.

evil should be punished not rewarded.

(i am already familiar with the phrases: all corporations are like that.
everyone is doing it.)

------
whataretensors
I had my identity stolen 10 years ago. 6 months ago I finally had the last of
it wrapped up. I hope. It was a miserable experience that costs a ridiculous
amount of time, money, and effort to clean up. And it seemed completely
random.

This breach is likely worse than anyone can predict. It could lead to a near
unlimited amount of identities for organized crime groups.

To illustrate, my wait times on the phone to the IRS was usually between 1-3
hours(during off-peak seasons too).

At this point it might be worth scrapping the social security system and
switching to private keys.

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wallabie
Boy, the IBTimes has always been a terrible place to read articles, especially
with its autoplaying videos, but now when you scroll down (after having
stopped the video of course) it inexplicably jumps to the lower right corner
of the screen and then PULLS the article to the top of the screen where the
video used to be. So while you're reading and scrolling, the article just
jumps away from you and you lose your place.

Incredible. How anyone thought this is good web design is beyond me. Then
again, IBTimes has always been a really shitty place for journalism overall.

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lefstathiou
I selfishly prefer that we limit the damages that can be sought from
businessss by victims of cyber crime. I don't have the resources and
capability to fight against state sponsored hackers, neither does the NSA, any
major corporation or anyone on HN. It would be nice to know that I won't be
risking jail or bankrupting my company by bringing my services to market. The
call to arms to punish these companies can have far reaching ramifications on
the cost of services and ones willingness on the margin to build them.

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emodendroket
Well you can't say lobbying doesn't have great ROI.

