Yesterday, Equifax announced that a hacker obtained information about 143 million consumers. This data included Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some cases, driver license numbers. Equifax customers are obviously really, really mad. So it’s not surprising that Bloomberg discovered that a class action lawsuit was filed against Equifax.
Hacks have become quite normal these days. But it’s a bit different with Equifax, as the company has a ton of personal information about you. You don’t want anyone to access your Social Security number or your credit card history.
According to Bloomberg, the lawsuit was filed in Portland, Oregon. Customers say that Equifax has been negligent when it comes to information security. Two firms are leading the class action lawsuit, Olsen Daines PC and Geragos & Geragos. They’re asking for billions in damages.
But this isn’t your average class action lawsuit. As Equifax discovered the hack in July, the company had plenty of time to prepare itself for the aftermath.
In particular, users can check if their information has been compromised by going to equifaxsecurity2017.com. You have to enter some personal information. In some cases, Equifax tells you to sign up to TrustedID Premier, an Equifax service. And if you look at the terms of services of TrustedID Premier, it says you can’t participate in a class action:
⑤ …which means WAIVING YOUR RIGHT to a class action or class arbitration!! Which is like… unimaginably evil??? (h/t @colindickey) pic.twitter.com/G0hrY9M6xl
— Cabel (@cabel) September 8, 2017
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Other users have reported that they could check if they’ve been compromised without agreeing to those new terms of services. So it’s hard to know for sure if TrustedID Premier is mandatory. But it’s clear that there will be more to come about Equifax’s class action lawsuit. In all cases, Equifax’s reputation has been greatly tarnished.
