Digital Journal — If corporations are trying to win the public’s trust, they won’t be happy with the latest news reported in the New York Times: Companies and institutions of every shape and size have collectively fumbled more than 93 million private records.
According to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer advocacy organization based in San Diego, consumer data is routinely stolen, mishandled or inadvertently tossed in the trash. Case in point: In early September, a division of J.P. Morgan Chase notified 2.6 million current and former Circuit City credit card account holders about a blunder that resulted in computer tapes containing their personal information being thrown out in the garbage.
Want another instance of corporate buffoonery? The Commerce Department recently admitted to losing 1,137 laptops containing “some degree of personal data.” As expected, the feds scrambled to save face. “While we know of no instance of personal information being improperly used, we regret each instance of lost material,” Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez said in a statement, “and believe the volume of lost equipment is unacceptable.”
Darn right it’s unacceptable! As is June’s debacle circling Hotels.com, when a thief stole a laptop containing the names, addresses, and credit card numbers of 243,000 customers. And for a more obscure example of government blundering, look no further than the buried story coming from U.S. Department of Transportation. On July 27 in Doral, Fla., a special agent’s laptop was stolen from his car, giving the thief names, addresses and Social Security numbers of more than 132,000 people.
If that’s not troubling enough, the New York Times also reported a study bound to send a shiver running through IT departments. It found that 81 percent of firms documented that an “electronic storage device such as a laptop specifically containing sensitive or confidential information had been lost or stolen in the past year.”
Bravo, Corporate America. You’ve whittled away another sliver of privacy that should be a basic human necessity. No one should be incredibly surprised, though — corporations look out more for their bottom line than for consumer rights. What will it take to reverse this widespread ignorance?
