Employees’ SSNs stolen — is company responsible?
November 20, 2009 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Employment law, HR Tech, In this week's e-newsletter - Tech
Starbucks was recently sued after a laptop containing private info about employees was stolen. Did the court hold the company responsible for the theft?
The swiped computer contained the names, addresses and social security numbers of about 97,000 Starbucks employees.
A group of workers sued the company for negligence. One of the employees claimed a bank told him someone had tried to open a bank account using his name and SSN. The account was immediately closed. None of the other employees experienced any other signs of fraud.
Starbucks argued it couldn’t be held liable, because the employees didn’t suffer any actual consequences. The judge agreed and dismissed the case — without suffering any actual damages, the employees had no reason to sue.
The key to keeping the employees’ info from being misused and escaping liability: The company acted quickly. Shortly after the theft, Starbucks:
- reported the crime to police
- notified all affected employees and advised them to take steps to protect themselves, and
- offered to pay for a year of credit monitoring services for all interested employees.
Cite: Kottner v. Starbucks
Tags: identity theft, laptop, starbucks
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