A data breach refers to any release of private, confidential, sensitive, or proprietary information into an unsecured or untrusted environment. The information could be released onto another computer or computer network, or directly onto the internet where anyone could access it. The release could be deliberate, accidental, or the result of an unauthorized intrusion into a secured computer network. Exposure of this type of information can lead to identity theft, or more. According to Norton Life Lock, the first data breach occurred in 2005 at Designer Shoe Warehouse which compromised over one million records. Other large companies like Yahoo, Facebook, Verizon, Equifax, and just recently Wawa have violated consumer rights and experienced breaches. Selfkey states, data breaches happen daily, exposing our email addresses, passwords, social security numbers and other highly sensitive data¹.
Unfortunately, most people do not understand the gravity of the problem until it personally affects them through identity theft or other malicious activity. HG.org tells us, consumer rights are reference to a body of law that pertains to things the producers of goods must do to protect customers from harm². Data states that our legal system only has a few laws and enforcement mechanisms to protect consumers from data breaches that could leave them vulnerable to identity theft and other illegal schemes³. Courts have only offered cursory recognition of a general right to privacy. Most laws dealing with privacy rights fall into two categories; laws that prohibit accessing computer systems without authorization, and laws that protect specific types of information⁴.
Companies have compensated millions affected by data breaches, but this has not stopped breaches from happening. Data breaches are violating consumer rights to protection, civil rights to privacy, and should be violating company policy. My solution to data breaches are to create laws that stop large companies from using certain networks to secure consumer information, develop laws that enforce the observation of company networks by government officials before they are allowed to store consumer data, make companies more liable if information is exposed, and hold companies legally accountable for violating the privacy rights of a U.S. citizen. Also, the U.S. government needs to demand that all states in the U.S. apply and enforce the “California Online Privacy Protection Act”. Recent studies show that every two seconds, a new victim of identity theft is claimed in the U.S.⁵. As of 2019, at least 7.9 billion records, including credit card numbers, home addresses, phone numbers, and other highly sensitive information have been exposed due to data breaches⁶. Let’s put a stop to this.
¹ Wallet, Identity. “All Data Breaches in 2019 & 2020 – An Alarming Timeline.” SelfKey, 10 Jan. 2020, selfkey.org/data-breaches-in-2019.
² Hg.org, www.hg.org/legal-articles/what-are-consumer-rights-31356.
³ “Data Breaches / Privacy.” Justia, www.justia.com/consumer/identity-theft/data-breaches-privacy/.
⁴ “Data Breaches / Privacy.” Justia, www.justia.com/consumer/identity-theft/data-breaches-privacy/.
⁵ Wallet, Identity. “All Data Breaches in 2019 & 2020 – An Alarming Timeline.” SelfKey, 10 Jan. 2020, selfkey.org/data-breaches-in-2019.
⁶ Wallet, Identity. “All Data Breaches in 2019 & 2020 – An Alarming Timeline.” SelfKey, 10 Jan. 2020, selfkey.org/data-breaches-in-2019.
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