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I am still pissed about this.

Apparently tucked away in Countrywide’s offer of two years of credit monitoring was a provision waiving your right to sue. Or, so the scatter reads on the net. I will do some research on this as soon as I can pull up my copy of the terms and conditions.

So for all of you out there still receiving your letters- DON’T ACCEPT THEIR “FREE” OFFER OF TWO YEARS OF CREDIT MONITORING. It appears that yes, indeed, you are surrendering your legal rights by taking their offer.

In the meantime, here is a link I found most helpful that directly relates to your privacy rights and corporate America’s responsibilities to safeguard their data.

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

National Conference Of State Legislatures Security Breach Notification Database

Security Focus Blog: What You Must Prove In A Data Breach To Sue

Unbelievable. I knew I should have listened to my gut instinct.

I got my letter on Saturday, right before I sat down to watch my beloved Boise State Broncos play.

Countrywide: 2,000,000 personal identities released to unauthorized third party

Apparently a Countrywide employee sold data to an unauthorized third party. Yeah, he has been arrested now, but that doesn’t mean my identity wasn’t compromised. When you dig a little deeper into this story you find that the culprit who sold our identities, my identity, worked for the Countrywide sub-prime lending unit.

What pisses me off the most is all the red flags I missed. About three years ago we briefly took a sub-prime mortgage as a temporary solution until we could obtain a more conventional loan (and yes, we have refinanced). 

Looking back I thought it was odd that Countrywide kept sending me letters arguing that I could, “refinance into a government FHA loan”. If they had done a little research they would have found that I had already refinanced– with them! If they had done a simple database merge they would have found their “refinance marketing” efforts had already succeeded.

As of the date of the breech, I hadn’t had a sub-prime mortgage with Countrywide in over two years. Needless to say, I am not happy about this.

Countrywide is offering two free years of Triple Advantage credit monitoring service. Which, according to my understanding, is one of the better credit monitoring services. But still, there is a lingering doubt in my mind– am I giving up my right to take legal action against Countrywide if I accept their offer? I couldn’t find a clear answer to that on the web.

I do know that action is currently being taken against Countrywide, there is a pending lawsuit asking for class-action status for the 2,000,000 of us whom had their identities compromised. Look, I know a data-breech could occur with nearly any company out there. No matter how well we screen our employees there will always be a few bad apples.

But here is the question I have for Countrywide: Why was my data still in the hands of the sub-prime mortgage department when I refinanced, with them, two years prior to the data breech? I want answers, and I am not happy with their efforts to make me whole so far.