I think in some ways, we have become somewhat complacent about our privacy and offer too much of it up without batting an eyelash. However, I also think some people have gone the exact polar opposite direction.
Take for instance, this story out of Lawrence Kansas, where an email was sent to students who were failing. Judging from the story, the person who sent out the email forgot to BCC the people they were writing to, thus releasing everyone’s email to each other, and letting the “cat out of the bag” on who didn’t make the cut.
An honest mistake, obviously. I mean, I doubt that anyone at the school decided to do this in order to embarass anyone. But don’t tell the flunkers that…
“This certainly will be a reminder to anybody who is ever pasting e-mail addresses into a message,” he said.
Cohen also said the incident had been reported to the Department of Education’s compliance office so it could determine if there was a violation of the federal law.
Jim Bradshaw, a Department of Education spokesman, said the federal agency would investigate any complaints it receives from students. He said universities violating the law could risk the loss of federal aid, but that the department almost always was able to work with them to ensure future mistakes aren’t made.
George, saying the mistake probably gave others an inaccurate picture of the type of student she is, is considering filing a complaint.
“The fact that I have a master’s degree and over 200 college credits and have never failed a course before, none of that is in the letter,” she said.
Are you kidding?
Bear in mind, this email was only a notification to people that they had failed a class, and that doing so had put their financial aid in jeopardy. It didn’t contain any personally identifying information aside from an e-mail address. No financial data, income, actual grades, number of classes failed, or any other information.
Sometimes people make mistakes. I hardly think that the University sent out this e-mail with the intent to malign the people in it, but something tells me that them pondering complaints means they see a payday in their future in the form of a fat “you hurt me you bastard” lawsuit.
Source: Yahoo News