Class In Session For LinkedIn

That didn’t take long. On June 6, hackers posted online over 6 million passwords obtained from LinkedIn’s database. A class action complaint was filed in a Californiafederal court on June 15. Who says justice is slow? But aside from the speed with which the complaint was filed, there are at least three other things to think about here. First, note that several of the 8 counts revolve around promises that LinkedIn made. These promises form the basis of the deceptive business practices counts and the breach of contract counts. So, if you collect personally identifiable data, you might want to check your privacy policy. What are you promising? Can you live up to those promises? But the complaint also contains negligence counts. Those counts aren’t focused on what LinkedIn promised so much as what LinkedIn did or didn’t do. The focus here is on LinkedIn’s allegedly shoddy and out dated encryption methods. So, have you talked to an IT professional? If you’re not up to date, you may be courting disaster. Finally, this case doesn’t mention it, but if you find yourself in a situation like LinkedIn you probably have a duty to notify the affected customers. Forty six states have some sort of Security Breach Notification Laws . Alabama, Kentucky, New Mexico and South Dakota are the only hold outs. The federal government hasn’t adopted anything yet, but it’s coming. It makes sense to be prepared. Unless being a class action defendant sounds like fun to you.