After the consumer credit bureau Equifax revealed last September that personal data from 145 million Americans had been exposed in a breach of its computers, a well-worn corporate scandal playbook kicked in. Nervous investors beat its stock down by a third. The CEO and other top execs felt a sudden urge to “retire.” Congress held hearings. Lawsuits were filed. One response, however, was more surprising: Sign-ups at Credit Karma—which requires consumers to trust yet another financial company with their credit records—spiked 50%. Apparently some hack-weary folks concluded that the only way to protect themselves from a bad guy with their financial data was to arm a good guy with it too. And Credit Karma has built a reputation, particularly among Millennials, as a good guy.
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