4 ms·

Thank you for the insight! I'm curious of your perspective around consumer success with data breach as of recent? Do you find companies liable for general negli

Thank you for the insight! I'm curious of your perspective around consumer success with data breach as of recent? Do you find companies liable for general negligence? As an example... When I was selecting a mortgage company a couple years ago one of the large providers who is newer, and started out in higher ed loans, seemed to have a very sloppy process. They did a lot of things via email that likely shouldn't be done which opened up the avenue for them to send my SO and I emails of PDFs that included our SSNs in them. Needless to say I stopped the mortgage process with them right there and, ended up using a local credit union. However, I threatened legal recourse in a state that doesn't have great privacy laws based on the obvious "leak". When they asked for proof I pointed out that the email headers contained 5 intermediaries that were out of their control between sending and receipt. The company sent us each a check for $4k and part of my stipulations were that we would not sign anything in exchange. I was surprised how easy it was and almost felt as though I left money on the table. But I'm curious if you see a particular area that consumers can push back on when companies are negligent with customer data?

thathndude 4y ago
Typically, breach litigation has not been very successful. I would describe your outcome at very out of the ordinary (although the behavior you describe is pretty egregious). The problem is that, generally, the law thinks in terms of damages. So this mortgage company was being reckless with private information, but were you harmed by it? If the answer is "no," oftentimes the claim is dead on arrival. Of course, we all know that a data breach might not yield harm for 12+ months (when the data is sold on a black market and then used nefariously). But the law isn't well equipped for these types of situations.

thathndude 4y ago

Typically, breach litigation has not been very successful. I would describe your outcome at very out of the ordinary (although the behavior you describe is pretty egregious). The problem is that, generally, the law thinks in terms of damages. So this mortgage company was being reckless with private information, but were you harmed by it? If the answer is "no," oftentimes the claim is dead on arrival. Of course, we all know that a data breach might not yield harm for 12+ months (when the data is sold on a black market and then used nefariously). But the law isn't well equipped for these types of situations.