Can You Sue Over Loss of Personal Information?

GreenCrackBaby asks: "My wife was at a mall about a year ago when she ran across one of those groups who were trying to sign people up for a Visa credit card. Since she didn't yet have a credit card, she decided she'd fill out the form. She had everything filled out and was ready to sign it when she noticed the draconian fine print that essentially promised that they would sell her personal data to anyone they could, so instead of signing the form she said 'no thanks' and tossed it in the garbage. That was a mistake she has been made to regret. Almost immediately SPAM to her university email address went from 0 to 20 a day, and has been slowly increasing since. Soon we started to receive a large number of telemarketing calls to our home (where before we had received almost none). Junk mail addressed to her went through the roof. It wasn't until the Visa card arrived addressed to her that we knew what had happened." It appears that someone fished this woman's application out of the garbage and submitted this anyways, without a signature. How is something like this even close to being legal?

"What has become clear is that someone selling those Visas fished her application out from the garbage and submitted it. We've managed to track down a copy of the form she had filled out, and in the signature area is a big 'N/A'. So now her personal information is being sold to every telemarketer, spammer, and junk mail shop in North America. What can she do? We'd like to sue the company who fished the application from the garbage and make a lesson out of them, but what is there to sue over? Is the loss of personal information even considered a tort?"

Comments

Re:you could always

[ideatrack]

You mean this isn't a legal advice site?

Get Even with the SPAMMERs

[Ada_Rules]

Just get even with the spammers by "helping" them to spread their message. Post a link to the site of spammers on a site like slashdot and make the cost of $0.00000000001 per spam message spike as their servers melt and their ISPs freak out due to the bandwidth requirements. Thats what I did :)

Re:See a lawyer.

[AKnightCowboy]

* Get a P.O. box.
* Don't rent cars or purchase cell phones.

Don't forget:
Wear a tin-foil hat at all times, this prevents their mind control rays from reaching you.

Avoid leaving your house for prolonged periods of time and always ensure a hidden surveillence camera is running while you're gone. That's when THEY will come and install bugs to easedrop on you.

Never eat the blue M&Ms. Just trust me on this one.. let's just say blue == best mind control wavelength. I can't say anymore.. they're on to me.

Re:No wonder there are such abuses

[Channard]

Then eat again, just to be sure?

Re:It Could Have been worse.

[Anonymous Coward]

How many times do we have to go over this. *Copying* someone's identity is not *stealing* since it does not deprive the owner of the ability to use that identity.

;)

Re:It isn't

[Rogerborg]

>especially for one Mr Void.

If he becomes a celebrity, does that make him a void * ?

Re:See a lawyer.

[Stephen Williams]

Never eat the blue M&Ms. Just trust me on this one.. let's just say blue == best mind control wavelength.

The red M&Ms, on the other hand, free your mind completely.

-Stephen

Re:My story

[FryGuy1013]

I've _filled out_ several credit card offers and sent them in. No credit card sent. How lucky it would be to be you :). Although I'll surely be changing my tone in a few years when I have more credit.

One Nifty Technique

[orbbro]

Here's what a former boss of mine would do:

1. Take the Business Reply Mail card or envelope you've received, the one that says "NO POSTAGE NECESSARY IF MAILED IN THE UNITED STATES" and "POSTAGE WILL BE PAID BY ADDRESSEE".
2. Don't fill anything out on the envelope or form, and make sure it doesn't have your valid return address anywhere on it.
3. Get a roll of clear packing tape, 2 inches wide.
4. Get a brick or other heavy object. Bricks work well because one side is roughly the same shape as an envelope.
5. Use the clear packing tape to thoroughly tape the brick to the back of the card/envelope. Make sure the address & other mailing info is still visible.
6. Take this BUSINESS REPLY MAIL "package" to your local post office, and mail it.
7. Repeat as necessary. Tell all your friends.

It may prove cumbersome, and who knows if it works in any way to reduce your junk mail, but god, it's satisfying.