SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Sorry, you're not getting $125 from the Equifax settlement, FTC says
Remember that $125 you could have gotten from the Equifax Inc. data-breach settlement? Yeah, never mind.
The Federal Trade Commission announced Wednesday that, due to an overwhelming response, cash payments aren't going to be anywhere near $125 each, and urged consumers to sign up for the free credit monitoring offered as an alternative.
About 147 million people were affected by the 2017 Equifax EFX, -0.64% breach, but only $31 million was set aside for payments as part of the $700 million settlement, announced last week. A quick bit of math shows that for everyone to have gotten $125 from that pot, there would have to be only 248,000 claimants. While the FTC didn't give a number, they said there were already "an enormous number of claims filed."
"A large number of claims for cash instead of credit monitoring means only one thing: each person who takes the money option will wind up only getting a small amount of money," the FTC said in a blog post Wednesday.
"So, if you haven't submitted your claim yet, think about opting for the free credit monitoring instead," the FTC said. "Frankly, the free credit monitoring is worth a lot more."
[...] The agency noted that consumers who had to pay out-of-pocket expenses due to the breach are still entitled to reimbursement if they submit a claim, as that money comes from a separate fund.
To get more information, or to find out if your data was exposed in the breach or file a claim, go to ftc.gov/Equifax.
Another quick bit of math reveals that if every one of the 147 million people affected opted for the $125 payout, the settlement pool would have needed to contain $18.375 billion; the payout fund totaled 0.17% of that: $31 million. Putting it another way, they set aside $0.21 for each potential claimant.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 03 2019, @11:23AM
"A large number of claims for cash instead of credit monitoring means only one thing: each person who takes the money option will wind up only getting a small amount of money," the FTC said in a blog post Wednesday.
Actually, it says something else.
Most folks think this company's 'service' isn't worth much.
The idea that these companies are too big to fail is nuts.
Suppose they fail, there are 2 other companies, not much better, but ready and able to take over the gap.
Also, how hard would it be to start another one that actually does a good job?
If a new company could demonstrate that it actually was better, then would banks have an excuse not to switch to it?
(Bank keeps old company which gets hacked, then is bank liable for not choosing a better alternative?)
Failure is most definitely an option and it is unfortunate that the FTC could not see what consumers were able to.