Well, today I received my check for the Equifax breach.
Guess how much it was for? $5.21.
Am I surprised? No. Am I upset? Very much yes.
When I moved to the United States I was told that your SSN number is very important and you should keep it secure. 18 years later I don’t know if anyone should care about keeping their SSN secure due to multiple breaches. Realistically, SSN of vast majority of Americans is easily bought online and if you worry about your identity you should at least have credit monitoring turned on. Even better if you simply freeze all your credit reports.
I completely understand the necessity of a credit score. I understand that it helps to weigh risk when it comes to loans. That’s fine. But isn’t it crazy that the system opts you in by default? Why is it that I have no way to opt out of this process? Isn’t this a “free country” as many like to say?
The debate about having to opt-in should apply to not just technology. Privacy and data protections should be a topic of much higher priority to our politicians. They really should be listening to their constituents and fighting for their rights!….Oh shoot, almost forgot of the legal bribery that exists in our political system. Some call it “lobbying”, but let’s call it by what it really means - bribery.