That's it exactly. Not only is this data not private, it has never been private. It has always been sold between companies, and is the entire basis for a multi-billion dollar industry. The CFPB is simply purchasing this information at the market price, just like hundreds of other companies do on a routine basis. As the joke goes, capitalists will sell the rope to hang themselves.

You can bet the NSA collects this exact same information. The NSA collects this information to conduct drone strikes, and find citizens to murder. The CFBP wants to use this information to regulate banks. Yet, this congressman doesn't talk about the NSA. Does it surprise anyone at all, that banking & finance sectors contribute heavily to his wallet? http://www.opensecrets.org/pol...

This is another politican who has been bought and paid for, and is fighting against the best interests of the people he supposedly represents.

First, the bank doesn't simply "eat" the cost of that fraud. They pass that cost on to customers.

Second, a "bit of a hassle" doesn't quite do justice to describing the process of having all your money stolen electronically at some inconvenient time, and then jumping through hoops for the process of reclaiming your money. Oh, were you busy? Because now you need to devote many many hours to this task immediately.

I've seen quite a few websites that give you the choice as to whether you store the card for future payments or not. Looking up payment history is typically a different process than looking at the card information that is stored directly in your user account records.

At the extreme, you could use your main credit card to purchase multiple one-time use visa gift cards. Then your card information doesn't match between websites, and you can expose the full card number of a now empty card with no negative consequences.

Why do you have a computer when a calculator can do the same job of adding numbers? Better yet, why not use an Abacus? Whats that you say... a computer can do more than simply add numbers? Similarly, a smartphone can do more than make and recieve phone calls.

One distinction here- there are stopping the free version, and giving current users a 6 month trial period of the pro version.

If Pwn2Own has taught us anything, its that all systems have driveby exploits

This is simply not accurate. First, pwn2own has been focused on browsers, rather than the whole OS the past few years. The last time they focused on OS was in 2008. Linux was the ONLY operating system that was not cracked. http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/29/linux-becomes-only-os-to-escape-pwn-2-own-unscathed/

Second, the ONLY browser and OS combination that was not defeated in the most recent contest in 2013 was Chrome on linux-based Chrome OS. A Windows based Chrome install was defeated. The OS very clearly made a difference in security. http://www.zdnet.com/linux-triumphant-chrome-os-resists-cracking-attempts-7000012331/ $3.14 million dollars is a lot of incentive, a hell of a lot more than a free macbook.

Sorry to sound like a fanboy, since obviously no system is entirely secure. But pwn2own's very small sample set specifically shows that linux is more secure.

So a Democractic Governor reduced the size of government (which republicans are nominally for), but because it reduced the services the govt could provide... it's political sabotage?

Virginia has 133 political districts of which it appears that about 20 of them tend to reliably vote democrat. So roughly 84% of districts lean republican.
10 of the 12 offices closed were in republican districts. So roughly 83% of the offices were in republican districts.

Those are some shocking statistics.

While it doesn't directly correspond to your story, it seems that people near an earthquake have sometimes reported unusual lights: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mysterious-light-associated-earthquakes

I thought you might be interested in the article.

Welcome to the global elite. Don't worry, thanks to geography and luck, you don't even have to be good at math.

Here is a link to a scientific debunking of the work you posted: http://www.skepticalscience.com/salby_correlation_conundrum.html

The great thing about science is that neither you, nor I, have to believe it for it to be true. Results of actual science can simply be reproduced.

Ignorance plays a big role, but also the low-income job structure. Many, if not most, people on the low income scale don't work a fixed schedule. They may work a double-shift one day, or pick up a shift unexpectedly when they thought they would have the day off.

This in turn means they have a higher than expected paycheck for the week, and less energy for the rest of their day. The easy option in that scenario is to purchase a pre-prepared meal rather than spending the time & energy to fix their own.

Now throw in other options like working the late shift one day, the early shift another, and you run into scenarios where it is difficult to maintain a standard time of day to prepare food, since your day to day routine and schedule isn't consistent.

Even when cooking, it is easier to find the pre-processed meals in a box, since they take less time to prepare than cutting vegetables up, and for a large percentage of people, taste better than what they can make on their own.

I like how you conveniently ignore both the Nook, and the fact that they DO offer ebooks which kindles can purchase, download, and read easily. You could support them financially, you just choose to take advantage of their perks for free.

I don't understand how your statement is different from this: "I really like the local coffeeshop, and love using their free wifi and sitting around there all day. But they don't sell coffee inside Starbucks cups, so I don't buy anything from them."

Except he didn't give the info to Wikileaks ?

an argument exists that Experian would not have had any way of realizing the nature of who they were selling it to

Excuse me? You are saying there is a valid argument that they have no way of knowing whom they are doing business with?

They have permanently compromised a system that hundreds of millions of people use every single day. They have made every single citizen subject to fraud, and have no ability to fix it, except conveniently through their business model. This breach will STILL be an issue ruining people's lives 20 years from now, and we will have to beg Experian to correct the problems they caused, and even pay them for the privilege. The economic damage could reach well into the trillions of dollars, there is virtually no cap, since it undermines the entire credit system of every citizen currently alive, for their entire lifetime. Every executive at the company should be put to a firing squad.

Even HBO GO requires a cable subscription ($80 + 15 for hbo), while you can buy episodes ala cart for $3, which is roughly an hours worth of entertainment. So if you watch more than 1 hour of it every single night then it could work out cheaper to subscribe.