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FROM BANKING TO DATA BREACHES: ENSURING FINANCIAL INSTITUTION ACCOUNTABILITY WITH PUBLIC AND PRIVATE OVERSIGHT
- Author(s):
- Thomas Goers
- Date:
- 2020
- Group(s):
- Michigan State Law Review
- Item Type:
- Article
- Permanent URL:
- https://doi.org/10.17613/4nmy-ck90
- Abstract:
- The Equifax, Inc. (Equifax) data breach was the second largest data breach in United States history. Though it was not the largest, the information stolen made it an unprecedented data breach. The 147 million consumers who lost their information in this breach looked to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to help redress their loses. After bringing a lawsuit, the FTC settled with Equifax for approximately $700 million to be dispersed to the consumer victims. However, when it came time for Equifax to pay, Equifax admitted that it did not save the money necessary to uphold its side of the settlement, and it instead offered free credit monitoring services to consumers. In response, the FTC encouraged consumers to take the free credit monitoring instead of seeking out any monetary redress from the settlement. Was Equifax held accountable? With so many citizens affected by data breaches, federal agencies in charge of overseeing consumer protection should be taking more proactive measures to prevent data breaches. Consumer protection agencies should also be holding institutions accountable for not securing consumer information. Similar to the actions taken by Congress to revamp oversight of the banking industry after the 2008 financial collapse, new regulations should be implemented to give consumer protection agencies more control over the institutions that hold consumer information.
- Metadata:
- xml
- Published as:
- Journal article
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 1 year ago
- License:
- Attribution
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2020.4-06-goers-comment.pdf