SCI/TECH: Credit Card Court Battle Tests Laws

Visa and MasterCard are in a California Court today fighting a class action suit that would force them to inform their California customers that their information had been stolen.
As was three months ago it was reported that 264,000 Visa and Mastercard customers may have had their information stolen when a hacker had breached the database of CardSystems Solutions Inc. Up to 40 million Mastercard Users may have been affected by the breach between Aug. 2004 and May 2005.




Talk about a nightmare for both the Credit Card companies but also for their customers. I would have to stand behind the customer's rights here on this issue. If a company is storing information about me, for what ever reason, and that information is compromised, I definately will want to know about it.
I myself was a victim of ID theft back in 2000 and let me tell you, I still feel the effects of it today, 5 years later!

Related News Links:
www.techfirm.com

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Victim of ID Theft? You may not be told!

I never gave this issue any thought, but if someone were to ask me if Visa/MC were liable to inform me if my personal info were stolen while under their control, I would have answered "Of course. It's only common sense!"

Definetly they should inform us. With those kinds of numbers, up to 40 million, it is very likely many members of this board including me may have had their information stolen. I personally have noticed no unauthorized activity and I doubt I will. I tend to cycle my cards every year. I simply report my card lost or stolen, they will deactivate that one then send you a new one. Fresh number that hasnt been touched yet. Hopefully these massive database thefts are not a common event.

I so hope the credit card companies get their butts handed to them in court. It is sheer irresponsibility to fail to inform their own customers that their information may have been stolen. It is both immoral and corporate suicide. People are going to be extremely upset with these companies, and the companies and customers are going to take a huge hit in the pocketbook because lots of ID theft is going to occur that they might have been able to prevent if they had actually told people about it. The responsibility rests with the company to protect its customers. That's part of the deal; the customer is paying for a service, and they should get that service performed to the best of the company's ability, which clearly has not happened here.

This story makes me glad I don't have a credit card...