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Comment by jfindley | Hacker News Reader

IANAL, but I think you'd find it virtually impossible to show $1000 of direct, material damages as a result of having your information leaked[0] and to the best of my knowledge this is the only sort of claim that small claims courts allow - I believe they do not allow punitive damages, nor theoretical ones.

0: Unless your info is actually used in a way that harms you, and you can prove that it was a result of this, but that seems unlikely to be true for the majority of affected people.

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Is it really so hard? Cost of a service like Equifax's own TrustedID or LifeLocks is over $100/year. Seems you could easily argue that you'd have to subscribe to said service for the next decade to guarantee your credit and identity aren't stolen?

(and I would think refusing to accept Equifax's "coupon" for TrustedID would be a similarly easy argument to make)

> to guarantee your credit and identity aren't stolen?

there's no right to not having your identity not stolen tho. By this logic, shouldn't you _always_ have the identity-theft prevention service paid for already, regardless of what happened to equifax?

I think you'd have to show _actual_ identity theft occurring with your name to claim damages.

No, now you need to sign up for identity-theft protection because Equifax handed all your info to the bad guys.

If it weren't for Equifax, anyone trying to use your identity would have a much harder time.

Many time the thiefs are actually caugh. If he she admits to stealing your data in this leak AND you are damaged, then here is your proof.

I think it's unlikely you'll actually be damaged. Any real financial impact would have been reversed by your bank. Maybe a fee or two that two parties argue about who should reimburse your for it, however I can't see stuff like that adding up to $1,000 (or even $100).

Well about 2 months ago (when the leak was happening apparently) I had false information showing up on my credit report for a Comcast debt.

The weird thing is the Comcast debt couldn't have actually been mine. As the date of the debt was smack dab in the middle of when I had service with Comcast before switching to ATT.

Now, during this period I tried to refinance my home and was denied due to a low score with Equifax. I pulled my EQ 2 weeks before trying to qualify and there was nothing. Then I found that after I was denied and pulled it again of course. I submitted a challenge on it, and it was removed within 2 weeks but the damage was already done.

So would this count as real damages?

You need to show a dollar amount that it cost you. If you can do that, you also need to show that had the leak never happened, you never would have had the issue in the first place.

Whether the debt "could have been yours" isn't relevant, what's relevant is how it showed up there. If someone fraudulently signed up for a Comcast account using your social, and they obtained your social via the leak, then yes the leak damaged you. You could go after the difference in your refinanced interest rate now v. what it would have been had you gotten it at the first request (are you paying 0.1% more because rates went up a week after your denial?) and possible the additional interest paid between the denial and the successful refinancing.

But if the Comcast account showed up on your report because someone fat fingered a social and there was no fraud, the leak didn't damage you at all and it was just bad luck.

You misunderstood how this affects SS #s holders. Its way more serious than just opening up a credit card and disputing it later on. In such situation the bank will reimburse you and close down fake account, but many banks will put negative information on your account just to warn other banks. You have to look at it from bank perspective, not your own. The bank can report: "okay we don't know how and when but someone opened account in client's name on his behalf so this clients has problems with his identity being stolen. Be warned".

Edit: not to mention the worse damage will be from fraudsters taking loans.

Does this "be warned" flag on someone actually damage them in any way?

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