Consumer complaint received 2017-09-13
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: FL
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Improper use of your report
Sub-issue: Reporting company used your report improperly

Complaint:
From XXXX - XXXX XXXX Equifax suffered a data breach losing personal data for 143 million Americans. This data is reported to include name, address, phone, SSN, birthdate and some drivers license numbers. Equifax failed to report this breach to the public until early XX/XX/XXXX thereby denying consumers the ability to protect themselves from the most significant data breach ever reported ( bigger than XXXX breach due to nature of information ). Three Equifax high-level employees sold large portions of their stock during the window from when Equifax knew they 'd been breached and when the public was informed, thereby allowing these three employees to get out of the market before Equifax 's stock dropped in value. 

Equifax ( and the other major credit reporting companies ) collect personal/private information without the consumer 's direct permission. When there are errors on a consumer 's credit report, it is darn near impossible to get them removed and it takes forever to make it happen putting the burden on the consumer when the consumer is typically not responsible for the problem. 

Then Equifax, who collects my private information without my permission, sells my own data back to me or to financial institutions that I engage in business transactions with, both of which cost me money and usually time/effort to get report cleaned up due to someone else 's error. One a daily basis they control every adult 's ability to buy a house, buy a car, get a loan, etc. When the consumer has been victim to identity theft, as I have, it can take well over a year to clear up the report. 

Now, Equifax, guardian of my private data, and controller of my housing future, loses my data along with the data of every US adult with a credit report and hides this fact for over 6 weeks. They then offer a solution which is a slap in the face of all consumers ... they offer their own product for one year. This is a HUGE deal and they offer to provide one year of their own product which at the end of the year, you can continue if you start paying them a monthly fee. And you still have to watch for charges on your account with their monitoring system and if you become a victim of fraud, you have to spend the time/effort fixing it with them and the other credit reporting companies. Finally the " year '' solution is n't acceptable because my SSN is still valid 2 years from now and 20 years from now.
Equifax is in the business of collecting, storing and selling consumer 's private data. They failed to keep it secure and for this, there should be significant penalties to ensure that they and the other credit reporting companies pay closer attention to consumer data. I urge you to make an example of them with swift and significant penalties, new regulations, etc.
Equifax just turned over the keys to every consumer 's personal financial life to criminals which has to be a criminal act. This must be pursued by the government and a solution ca n't be a one year " membership '' in Equifax 's own product. That is ridiculous. It rewards the guilty party with a second chance to watch the same data they just lost!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation