← Back to context

Comment by gruez

3 years ago

>The extra friction is probably a feature: https://assets.equifax.com/wfs/theworknumber/assets/twn_Empl... (the exif data on that PDF shows the name of the employee that created it and that they used Word 2010...)

I don't get it. how is "PDF shows the name of the employee that created it and that they used Word 2010" relevant to the claim that "extra friction is probably a feature"?

Just speculating here, but I wonder if their point is that they went out of their way to create a PDF that is as unusable as possible, and that Word 2010 is somehow required to create such a PDF.

A few simpler explanations:

- Equifax IT hasn't rolled out modern O365 apps

- The form was created a long time ago, and has not been updated

Regardless of the exif data, I do believe that friction is absolutely a feature in this process, but I also think the Word 2010 angle is tenuous at best.

  • I've worked on these kinds of systems, but not this one explicitly. There is always a discussion about how to make it(legally) more difficult for users to do something you don't want them to do. It's not paranoia, it's reality.

  • No angle or point with that comment. Just interesting! I like looking at exif data. And I think there should be more awareness around what it often leaks.

  • Probably it's buried in a ticket deep in the feature requests lists and has zero potential revenue impact (or negative) so it isn't prioritized.