After years of screaming headlines about data breaches, we all know the drill. A major company announces it has been hacked, a brief public outcry ensues, and then… not much happens. Down the road you might read about a government inquiry or a class-action suit being settled. People have become numb to these announcements. We assume our personal information has been compromised in some way, take reasonable precautions like canceling a credit card or instituting credit monitoring, and move on with our lives.
Equifax and Why It’s So Hard to Sue a Company for Losing Your Personal Information
Can you prove you were harmed by it?
September 22, 2017
Summary.
The Equifax breach is different from previous breaches. It isn’t the largest or the most embarrassing, but it involves personal data that people didn’t directly give to Equifax, which makes the nature of the breach unique. The company is facing a number of lawsuits, and Congress is demanding answers. But U.S. citizens may find it hard to sue Equifax over the breach. Why? They will have to prove that it was specifically this breach that spilled their personal information across the internet. Reform for the credit reporting industry is unlikely; more likely is that private companies will push for better ways to authenticate people’s identities — which becomes ever more important as people’s private information becomes public.
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New!
HBR Learning
Digital Intelligence Course
Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Digital Intelligence . Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
Excel in a world that's being continually transformed by technology.