Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Equifax: More Terrifying than "It"


What's more frightening than a killer clown chopping off a child's arm in a movie inspired by a Stephen King book?  The choice is tough, but I'll say. . .Equifax.  Should you happen to be an American adult, chances are your personal information is now in the not so loving hands of computer hackers who probably reside in places we've never even thought of visiting.

Ha, some credit-reporting organization.  Here's a major corporation which keeps extensive files of our personal history -- of which they never elicited or were required to elicit our permission -- and they couldn't even keep our data safe in the golden and well-known era of computer hacks.

We suppose Equifax officers consider themselves big-hearted for offering to gift us all with free credit monitoring for one year, but I assume the public appetite following outrage tends more toward something more like free lifetime monitoring for this situation over which we had absolutely no say from the start.  I don't recall asking a credit bureau to store my personal information, do you?

As if this truly overwhelming and dire predicament couldn't get worse, the monitoring corporation Lifelock took immediate advantage of this mass public misfortune by running ads bolstering their services, for which one must pay.  Nice try., but if anybody should pay for secure monitoring, it's Equifax.

Anyway, the class action lawsuits have already started to emerge, so we'll see who benefits the most -- "them" or us.

TV telethon for hurricane victims:  Whatever that was on the TV screens Tuesday evening, my impression of this supposedly charitable event hosted by famous people from the entertainment industry is that it turned out significantly to be just another way to bash and blame the right wing and Trump for anything that comes to mind.

Hillary Clinton blames the world and, yep, Trump, too.  Because even the Democrats are whispering that they wish she would just go away, we don't see a lot of cash emanating from the publication of her new book.  However, as eventual combustible material for high school bonfires?  The book is perfection.

Hurricane Irma:  Ditto, ditto, ditto our previous blog entry on the Texas hurricane, regarding too much and too many.  A big, lovely world full of people and more people seems just great until one massive disaster after another strikes.  Nature's balance is way out of control, and emergency responders can be worn to the bone in short order trying to handle catastrophic events in Texas and now Florida..  Meanwhile, we party on and rebuild the same old ways, awaiting the next atmospheric or terrestrial disturbance to turn lives upside-down, literally.  These are the dreams of madmen come true.