[BreachExchange] Senate rewards Equifax despite privacy breaches

[Richard Forno]

(Congress, again doing what it does best -- the unadulterated display of self-serving idiocy and promoting the utter abrogation of responsibility for damages to the American people in the pursuit of profits.  --rick)

Senate banking bill rewards Equifax despite privacy breaches

Newly released provisions would allow the company and its industry peers to enter the mortgage market while shielding them from consumer lawsuits.

By ZACHARY WARMBRODT

03/12/2018 07:09 PM EDT

Equifax’s role in the biggest consumer data breach in U.S. history isn’t stopping Congress from giving the giant credit reporting company sweeping protection from lawsuits while allowing it to expand its offerings into the mortgage business.

Those favors for Equifax and its peers in the credit reporting industry are among the surprise provisions in a major banking and financial deregulation bill that the Senate is set to pass this week.

The changes, made public only last Wednesday, are providing new ammunition to critics of the banking legislation, which would scale back regulations imposed after the 2008 financial crisis. Congress has yet to pass any laws creating stiffer penalties for companies like Equifax, whose security practices allowed hackers to steal highly sensitive data on as many as 148 million U.S. customers last year.

"This is the credit reporting agencies, one of whom caused more than half of the U.S. adult population to get hacked and to have their Social Security numbers in the hands of thieves," National Consumer Law Center staff attorney Chi Chi Wu said. "They really should not have that political clout right now."

The Senate is on track to pass the banking legislation around the middle of this week after a procedural vote Monday evening. The credit-reporting issues could remain in play when the House takes up the bill.

On the surface, the bill appears to impose a large burden on Equifax, TransUnion and Experian, which would be required for the first time to provide free credit freezes for consumers and free credit monitoring for members of the military.

But lobbyists for the companies quietly prevailed in a months-long fight to secure language that would shield the firms from consumer lawsuits stemming from the free credit monitoring requirement. Another add-on — which could have a considerable impact on the housing market — could give a joint venture operated by the three companies an entry into providing credit scores for aspiring homeowners applying for mortgages.

< - >

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/12/equifax-data-breach-banking-profits-405457