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If a company dealing in toxic chemicals goes bankrupt, is it functionally legal to just dump them in the nearby river? I’d be amazed if countries don’t have leg
by scott_w 2y ago
If a company dealing in toxic chemicals goes bankrupt, is it functionally legal to just dump them in the nearby river? I’d be amazed if countries don’t have legal processes in place to deal with situations like this and maybe the courts haven’t caught up to this use case?
- relaxing 2y agoWe need a Superfund for data spills.
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y agoI think there's supposed to be an escrow account where you say like "I'm going to handle X amount of petrol / nuclear material, here's a big pile of cash set aside for cleanup if I dissolve" One could do the same for pii. Of course it's cheaper not to, so I'm not sure if anyone actually does this kind of insurance policy
- consteval 2y agoI think historically in the US that's exactly how it's been done, and then we just clean it up later (or never). In the meantime a bunch of people get sick
- scott_w 2y agoI don’t know the US system but in the UK you have two basic routes to running a business: sole trader or LLC. In the former, short of dying, it’s not possible to “disappear,” because you’re personally liable for everything. I’d guess that includes data breaches. In the latter, it’s also not really possible because the company must be wound up if it goes bankrupt. In the worst case, the government appoints administrators to wind the company up, who would be responsible for handling the assets. Now, if the processes aren’t up to scratch, maybe that’s a thing that needs to be fixed, but the structure is there to do it. At least in the UK.