This morning I read this article: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iZchJDcVnuQDNPJsok2PSPr5vwRQD8U823R03 The information of 650,000 people, 150,000 of which includes SSNs. Sure, GE is paying for credit card monitoring services, and they did take a while to gather the data so they could send letters(but as the article points out, people may throw those letters in the trash). Personally, I think this shit needs to stop. My idea to stop it, force the federal government to step in(SSN's are from the federal government anyway). Simply charge a fine of $1,000 per person who had their info lost by a company, and an additional $500 per person for every month that the company doesn't disclose that it occured. In this particular case, 650,000 people would end up being a $650,000,000 fine. Even if they only fined them for SSNs missing, it'd still be $150,000,000. This also prevents smaller businesses from being wiped off the face of the earth because they lost a small handful of information, but still penalizes them. Once the government has to hand out a few of these fines, you bet your ass companies will watch themselves, and your information better. It almost seems like a monthly occurence these large scale incidents happen.
Freaking hell and I have JC Penney card too, because I used to work there. :/ I am canceling it right away. EDIT: I just canceled my account. The lady tried to give me a big explaination of what happened and that my information was not one of those people whose info was lost. I still closed it.
Agreed. I work hard to keep my credit score in great condition and to have it all washed down the drain because of some company's ignorance really pisses me off. I saw a news report where some company was evicted and all their customer's files were dumped in boxes on the street from the building! Shred the freaking paperwork for Pete's sake! What really pisses me off is the fact that the credit card companies can't press the delete key and make your credit back to normal when some other jerk wad stole your identity and had a spending spree. It's your job then to spend years trying to fix it. Bullshit.
Just goes to show that GE didn't do a decent job of notifying people if it takes a post on a transformers board I used to think the people going through the trash in my apartment complex were annoying enough(thankfully I have a paper shredder), but at least I can chase those guys off with a shotgun if I catch them. Consumers can't do squat to these big companies and organizations on their own for this stuff though(it's not just companies either, there was some blood bank a while back that lost info for tens of thousands of people when someone walked in and stole a laptop). Hell, the government stepping in to force credit bureaus to fix this stuff for folks, and penalizing companies for letting it happen, would probably help the economy is general by boosting faith in the credit system.
