It wasn’t bad enough that a Radio Shack store dumped thousands of customer records in a dumpster, but the information contained not only personal information of the customers but also social security and credit/debit card information as well. The Attorney Generals office for the State Of Texas has filed a suit against Radio Shack which is based in Fort Worth which alleges the records dumping was in violation of state statute.
One of the fines carries a penalty of $50,000 which amounts to a slap on the wrist for a company that owns over 4500 stores in the US. Isn’t it time that penalties be increased to reflect the seriousness of carelessly deposing of such a treasure trove of information that could of potentially fallen into the hands of criminals?
What is annoying about this is that no matter how hard we consumers try to protect our personal information, we have ‘idiots’ in control who don’t have the brains given to a pigeon, who have access to our records. This is disturbing following the break in a TJ Maxx which I had just reported which further supports the notion that we consumers need to speak up more and force all companies, big or small, to better secure our personal data.
I am sure we all agree that data theft and identity theft have taken on a more important part of our daily lives in that we all recognize that this crime has now reached epidemic proportions and that all of us are being exposed in some way or another. But what really is starting to become irritating is the fact that no one really seems to care. There is so much money being spent by consumers who charge purchases on their debit or credit cards, that even the banking system appears to have accepted data loss as a necessary evil that is beyond their control.
What do you think? Are we all doomed to a life where our identities are up for sale to the highest bidder?
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