data breach lawsuit
You’re On the Jury: The Case of the Offer too Good to Be True
Doing the Data Breach Lawsuit
Facts
An infidelity website, Madison Ashley and its parent company, have been sued in federal court by a man who claims that the companies failed to adequately protect clients’ personal and financial information from theft, saying he suffered emotional distress.
The lawsuit accuses Madison Ashley (MA) and parent company of negligence and invasion of privacy, as well as causing emotional distress. The lawsuit follows a breach of the Madison Ashley website by a group called the Impact Team, which downloaded “highly sensitive personal, financial, and identifying information of the website’s 37 million users.
The lawsuit follows a breach of the MA website by a group called the Impact Team which had threatened to publish the “stolen personal information” if the MA website was not shut down. This information included millions of email addresses for U.S. Government officials, UK civil servants and high-level executives at European and North American corporations.
At Trial
The Plaintiff argues that the data breach could have been avoided if the company had taken “necessary and reasonable precautions to protect its users’ information”. MA knew of several technical issues that could had led to a data breach but did nothing. The defense argues that their damages must be proven and, as there is no indication of credit card fraud or illegal use of the information, there is no basis for the case. Additionally, their website contains this sentence “We cannot ensure the security or privacy of information you provide through the Internet.”
Questions
- Do individuals who subscribe to and visit this site have a reasonable expectation of privacy? Why or why not?
- Are there facts that would support a tort action and, if so, what tort(s)?
- Are there any other defendants besides MA? If so, why sue just MA?
NOTE:
In the semester there will be posted in the Discussions a fact scenario that relates
to the material in the textbook and handouts. A series of questions will be posted
with this scenario. Each student who participates in this discussion can receive up
to 15 points per scenario for the answers and 5 points for the response.
Participation is defined as posting one’s comments or answers to the questions in
the
assigned
forum and responding in any forum. Have a discussion please. If
you wish to respond in a different forum, you’ll first have to post a short
introduction and then you can see the threads in that forum.
“Yes” or “No” or “I agree”
is not an answer nor is it a response. I’m looking for
developed answers that include an analysis of the scenario in relationship to the
content of the textbook. A response is a comment to someone so please indicate
whose post you are responding to and develop your answer. I don’t know the
context for your response if I don’t know who, by name, you are responding to.
The statement, “I agree with you”, doesn’t tell me who as all I see is a string of
names.
The following is from a student who posted a long response but really didn’t say
anything: “
I agree with all of the examples and such that you gave. The examples you
viewpoints as well. I would be in favor of Samantha in this situation as well for thereasons you had said and other reasons listed in my post. Overall, great post! Keep up the
good work!”What did this student say besides
“I agree with you”?There must be at leastone reference to chapter/page/lecture note in a student’sdiscussion
.
If a student chooses not to participate, no points will b received. Minimal participation will yield partial points.
You may find that some student(s) who posted prior to you may have covered thepoints you wanted to cover. Explore the material to see if there isn’t somethingadditional to add or a new perspective. Perhaps you can explore the “opposition”
side. I’m looking for analysis using the scenario facts and the materials in the textand online – there is no right or wrong answer – it’s how you discuss and supportyour position that’s critical. However, an incorrect application of the material,
e.g., a tort concept in a breach of contract action without adequate support willresult in some point deductions.Remember, there are always different ways of looking at things –
You say goodbye and I say hello.There is a certain amount of vagueness in the facts ofeach scenario to allow for different perspectives Students will be divided into groups according to the first letters of their last
names. (Jury 1 A-C for example).
Each group will be assigned a different scenario. Please monitor Canvas’s Discussion to see which Scenario/Group you have been assigned to. While a response can be posted in any forum following the directions above, the initial post must be submitted in the assigned forum. All forums are deliberately kept to a maximum of 5 members in order to allow eachmember enough new material to discuss. If the forum gets to large becausestudents outside the forum post to the initial questions, it robs the forum membersof an opportunity to demonstrate their analytical skills.
If a non-forum member submits an initial post, not a response, in the incorrectforum, it will be treated as a response for purposes of grading and given no more than 2 points. All discussions will be posted in the Discussions. That is also where the Scenarios will be found. Each student’s analysis/discussion must also be posted in the
Discussions.
When you respond to another’s post, please indicate the student(s) to whom you are responding. It can be difficult to follow your response if we don’t know thebasis for that response. And please, remember to introduce yourself as a visitor to that forum as a matter of courtesy. This is important – you must create a new thread to introduce yourself before you can read the other students’ posts. You don’t need to do this in your own forum. In fact, do not do it. Creating a new thread in a forum to which you weren’t assigned and answering the scenarioquestions as though the answers are a response, won’t count as a 5point response.
That will result in a maximum of 2 points towards the 5 points for a response
spelling and grammarare a part of the grading and deductions will be taken ifthere are errors in these areas. There are 15 points possible for the answers andanalysis to the scenario questions and 5 points possible for the response.
Answer preview
Do individuals who subscribe to and visit this site have a reasonable expectation of privacy? Why or why not?
The individuals who subscribe and visit the company’s site do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. According to the Fourth Amendment, individuals should not expect privacy protection of activities that take place in the cyberspace. When visitors are accessing the site, there are some terms-of-use agreements that they have to accept before they proceed. Such agreements act as disclaimers that any information individuals offer in the public space is easily accessible to anyone. In such instances, websites use cookies to track information of individuals that visit the sites; therefore, the data can be retrieved easily by people with ill-intentions. Hence, since the law stipulates that any information…
(350 words)