While I agree with the premise that we should make security breaches as painful and expensive as possible for negligent parties such as Equifax, the manner of this claim feels completely off.
For starters, I have to submit information to a 3rd party, and that in fact will start a process that I, as a victim (potentially, at least) of Equifax's negligence, must complete. Moreover, even the actual damages I will be entitled to is quite unknown. I realize a lot of this is due to class action law, but it's still woefully insufficient.
Furthermore, reading through the fine print, at least according to other analysis I've read about it, you also have to enroll or already be enrolled in some kind of identity protection program (such as what Equifax offers themselves). So, I would to have to opt-in to a system I am trying to stay out of in the first place.
And why do I even have to confirm my info? If Equifax has it already, then they should reach out to me, as a victim of their negligence.
There is more, but these are the most glaring issues. I realize there's not a lot that can be done, but these factors give me a strong distaste for this and I think we are deluded in thinking this will actually amount to anything more than a slap on this wrist or even cost them much of anything. It's going to cost them up to $31 million based on people's claims. It likely won't cost them more by me filling out the claims, but it will cost me as I'll have to become further entrenched in a monitoring system that got us into this mess in the first place.