Should I access free ID theft insurance and monitoring?
December 17, 2019 4:00 PM   Subscribe

I am in Canada. My health data may have been stolen in a cyberattack on lab test provider Life Labs in late October. The company paid ransom to get data back and is offering potentially affected clients one year of free identity theft insurance and dark web monitoring through American consumer credit reporting agency TransUnion. This probably seems like a silly question, but I’m tired and stressed, and feeling suspicious of everything at the moment: Are there any downsides to accessing this service? Reassurance about the Canada/US cross-border info privacy angle particularly welcome.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl to Law & Government (6 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
American consumer credit reporting agency TransUnity.

I think you mean TransUnion.
posted by jon1270 at 4:14 PM on December 17, 2019


Response by poster: Yes, I realized after I hit post...have asked the mods to change it.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 4:21 PM on December 17, 2019


Mod note: Fixed, carry on!
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:29 PM on December 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


Best answer: TransUnion operates as a credit reporting agency in Canada, as well as in the US. As a LifeLabs customer, I've been watching this story, as well, and I haven't seen anything that suggests that the credit monitoring would be specifically through the US arm of TransUnion, and if it is part of the Canadian arm of the company, they would have to comply with Canadian privacy laws themselves. Plus, they already know everything about you, probably, given that they are a credit reporting agency, so signing up for credit monitoring doesn't seem like a huge added risk.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:50 PM on December 17, 2019


Best answer: Are you giving up your right to be part of a class action suit (or Canadian equivalent) by accepting, and do you care?
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 5:56 PM on December 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Thanks folks, sounds like there’s not too much to worry about but I will find out the info about whether it would eliminate the possibility of participating in a class action law suit. I had not even thought about that!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:34 PM on December 18, 2019


« Older Please help us identify this gay film!   |   Headlight woes. Maybe? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.