Customer Sues Best Buy for $54 Million Over Lost Laptop; Protecting Your Own Data
Network World is running a story about a Best Buy customer whose laptop was lost by the electronics store's service department. The customer is quoted in the article as saying, the biggest problem is:
Best Buy's systematic disregard for its customers' personal information and potential exposure to identity theft
One has to ask, if there is important information on that laptop, what measures did the customer take to protect it before turning over the laptop?
The customer's blog lists more serious allegations about false statements and falsified records. If true, that's the real story and the more serious problem for the company.
No one would argue that Best Buy doesn't have a responsibility to protect customer's assets entrusted to them. At the same time we can't leave sensitive, private or valuable information unprotected. The owner of a $2,000 laptop might know the hard drive contains $1,000,000 worth of intellectual property. I doubt a technician can tell the difference between that laptop and one that used to surf the Web and take notes in staff meetings.
The signs at the repair desk of a local computer store in my town sums it up: "Backup your data. We are not responsible for lost data." They can't replace my data and they can't assess the value of that data and make an informed decision about assuming the risk of protecting it. That's my job.
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