I’ve been harping on this for a long time……. this is just unbelievable to me.

Less than two years into the great cultural awakening to the vulnerability of personal data, companies and institutions of every shape and size - like the data broker ChoicePoint, the credit card processor CardSystems Solutions, media companies like Time Warner and dozens of colleges and universities across the land - have collectively fumbled 93,754,333 private records. Or at least that’s the rough figure the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer advocacy organization in San Diego, has tallied thus far.

An entry from Sept. 7: Chase Card Services, a division of J. P. Morgan Chase, announced that it had begun notifying 2.6 million current and former Circuit City credit card account holders that computer tapes containing their personal information had been inadvertently tossed in the trash.

The bank said it believed the tapes were safely “buried in a landfill” somewhere, but it was nonetheless offering affected consumers the now pro forma consolation prize: one year of free credit monitoring.

Article at the New York Times