WASHINGTON, D. C. – Attorney General Karl A. Racine today co-authored a letter joined by counterparts from 33 other states to credit reporting firm Equifax requesting that it disable its fee-based credit monitoring service in the wake of the massive data breach impacting 143 million people.
“Companies have a responsibility to protect the personal information of their consumers, especially companies that are supposed to help you if you are a victim of identity theft,”said Attorney General Racine. “The Equifax data breach exposed the personal information of nearly 350,000 District residents through no fault of their own; the company should not now be able to profit off the resulting needs of those very same consumers for ongoing protection. We want to ensure that redress for consumers is easy, clear, and free.”
An investigation was launched by the attorneys general as soon as Equifax publicly disclosed the breach last week. Equifax began offering free credit monitoring services in response to the breach, but the attorneys general today objected to Equifax “seemingly using its own data breach as an opportunity to sell services to breach victims,” they wrote.
The attorney generals wrote, “We believe continuing to offer consumers a fee-based service in addition to Equifax's free monitoring services will serve to only confuse consumers who are already struggling to make decisions on how to best protect themselves in the wake of this massive breach…Selling a fee-based product that competes with Equifax's own free offer of credit monitoring services to victims of Equifax's own data breach is unfair, particularly if consumers are not sure if their information was compromised.”
Although Equifax has agreed to waive credit freeze fees for those who would otherwise be subject to them, the other two credit bureaus, Experian and Transunion, continue to charge fees for security freezes. The attorneys general said that Equifax should be taking steps to reimburse consumers who incur these fees to completely freeze their credit.
The attorneys general have also had communications with Equifax to ensure that the terms of service for the free credit monitoring services and the placement of service enrollment information on Equifax's Web page are fair and clear for consumers. Equifax was responsive to these concerns.
The letter was drafted by Attorney General Racine and the Attorneys General for Connecticut, Illinois and Pennsylvania, and is being joined by 28 other attorneys general from Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, and West Virginia.