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Home Depot Will Pay Up To $19.5 Million For Massive 2014 Data Breach (csoonline.com)
itwbennett writes: In remedy for the 2014 data breach that included the theft of data pertaining to about 56 million payment cards, as well as 53 million email addresses, Home Depot has reportedly agreed to pay $13 million to reimburse customers for their losses and $6.5 million to provide them with 18 months of identity protection services. And while the company was not required to admit wrongdoing, it has agreed to hire a chief information security officer.
Sorry we let criminals get your card info. Here's thirty cents.
18 free months of credit protection! Awesome. Home Depot really took it on the chin there, just like all the other leakers!!!
Doesn't everyone's SSN and mother's maiden name change every year or so? 18 months should totally cover that. Why just last week I got my new SSN! I think my mother's maiden name is up for renewal pretty soon as well as my address, address history, bank account numbers, and mortgage. 18 months? No sweat. I'm protected!
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
they also announced that your furnace filter will now cost $.03 more to pay for it. so it goes.
nothing to see here - move along
the 2014 data breach that included the theft of data pertaining to about 56 million payment cards, as well as 53 million email addresses, Home Depot has reportedly agreed to pay $13 million to reimburse customers for their losses and $6.5 million to provide them with 18 months of identity protection services.
So they are paying $0.35 per affected customer. That my friends is the very definition of a slap on the wrist.
SSN was never intended to be a unique ID for things like credit. Its purpose was for social security. I think it's high time the government funded grants to pay our best mathematicians to come up with a new system. Maybe something involving a physical token. Not sure what such a system would look like, but it's obvious SSN for credit and medical purposes is broken. Hell, SSN isn't even guaranteed to be unique!
I can't imagine Home Depot still being in business 10 or 15 years from now.
Really? I can't imagine them not being around. Home Depot made $7 billion on $85 billion in sales last year. There is nothing on the market that is going to replace them soon. They're not really vulnerable to Amazon for much of what they sell (can't ship lumber UPS) and the local mom and pops are too specialized or too small to compete effectively.
Walking through Home Depot reminds me of every retail chain 6 months before filing for bankruptcy.
I'm in Home Depot's routinely and you have a very different impression from me. Sure it looks like a warehouse but that's actually on purpose. Their founder designed it that way. It's not supposed to look like an Apple Store. Their founder reportedly drove a forklift around their first store just before it opened trying to get scuff marks on the floor - on purpose.
Home Depot reminds me of Radio Shack circa 2010.
Umm, yeah... no. The two are nothing like each other.
Home Depot is actually much larger than the warehouse you visit - they're a literal supply chain. There are contractor versions of Home Depot ("HD Supply" - guess what HD stands for?) whose sole purpose is to supply all the contractors with stuff, kinda-sorta like Costco, but also a one-stop shop for materials and everything.
Sure, you can find better - you can go to a local nursery for better plants, a lumber yard for better lumber, etc.,but building contractors don't typically want to make 100 stops for all their supplies. If they need more than a few cords of lumber they might contract with a lumber yard for that, but basic supplies they will do it at Home Depot or the contractor store. And yes, in a pinch, they will also go to Home Depot to pick up supplies - again, because they can make one stop to do it.
Lowes and Menards are better, cheaper, and have already replaced many Home Depot locations.
Lowes is in no way, shape or form cheaper than Home Depot. There is very little difference in price between the two on average and I shop in both routinely. There is also plenty of evidence of people price comparing the two (spend two seconds on Google looking) and they almost always come out pretty close in price. You might find a deal in one or the other but if you think Lowes is cheaper you are not basing that on objective evidence.
You can get better prices than either sometimes going to specialty stores but whether that is worthwhile depends on how much running around you plan to do.
I can't speak for Menards as there isn't one near me but I'm dubious their prices are meaningfully less.