I agree, but this is not a helpful point form which to start a conversation. It's lazy and below the standards many expect from HN.
A better way to start this conversation (imo) would be to make reference to the many mistakes Equifax has made over the years and ask what is preventing Equifax from facing real consequences, such as being shutdown?
It's the effort that people place into having genuine conversations that keeps me coming back here and not just hanging around Twitter and Reddit. If someone wants to be lazy and still get online validation, there are communities for that and if you want to have a real conversation here, but don't have the time/energy to start it properly then all you have to do is wait a few minutes and someone who does, will.
Yes, I'd like to see someone demonstrate that they put some thought into the idea of what happens when, say, credit reporting agencies are eliminated or curtailed. What would be the negative repercussions, etc.
In contrast to a low-effort farting of "break 'em up!" for karma. That doesn't bring anything new to the conversation.
It seems like you're arguing against a pithy call to shut down credit reporting agencies in general, when the comment at issue was specifically directed at the credit reporting agency that has the worst public track record for security and privacy. It's like if you had asked "but how will the economy function without accountants?" in response to the dismantling of Arthur Andersen, or asked how online banking could survive without Symantec SSL/TLS certificates.
The consequences of shutting down just Equifax are relatively mundane: lenders and other customers of Equifax take their business elsewhere, and Equifax's competitors have some motivation to be a bit better lest they suffer the same fate. The industry as a whole would get along just fine. The less realistic and more extreme hypothetical that you want to debate is irrelevant here.
My argument was in my last sentence, in response to the defense of pithy comments that millions already beat to death six months ago. I'm arguing neither for nor against the shutdown of Equifax.
We should really work on making personal data transactions illegal. I can’t think of a single company that I would be happy to hear that they sold my data to third-party. These companies provide no additonal benefits.
Equifax is the worst. You can call them and ask to buy lists of names, addresses and phone numbers of people matching certain financial criterias. Facebook would look dull in comparison if people knew the extent of the Equifax abuse of privacy.
> Equifax is the worst. You can call them and ask to buy lists of names, addresses and phone numbers of people matching certain financial criterias. Facebook would look dull in comparison if people knew the extent of the Equifax abuse of privacy.
Don't be silly. The long arm of Equifax has a finite length. We know where they get their data from and you have to at least pretend to "consent" to provide it to them by initiating a financial transaction. The Breach aside, there are federal laws (FCRA, etc.) governing willful dissemination of the data they have on you, and the scope of the data they collect is entirely financial.
None of this applies to Facebook/Google. There is no "consent" or opting-in to their lifestyle intelligence pool. You start building a dossier a few seconds after venturing onto the internet for the first time.
Your name ending up on a list of middle-to-upper-class sales leads is not a crime against humanity. There are many other ways to get the same data, starting with public records.
Your arguments seem to work both ways, for example: There is no "consent" with Equifax, they start building a dossier a few seconds after you venture into the open market. You at least have to pretend to "consent" to Google by initiating an HTTP transaction with a Google-associated property. And there are many other ways to get the same data (again, like public records)
They provide safety for lenders, which allows those lenders to offer you cheaper prices. Is that worth it? Not sure personally, but I don't think it's fair to say that they are totally without benefit.
