First there ARE laws that make what the employees did illegal and Best Buy liable. It varies from state to state, but Washington, DC has both Consumer protection legislation that requires Best Buy to adopt reasonable safeguards against the theft of personal information and a privacy breach notification law that requires Best Buy to notify customers of potential security breach as soon as they become aware of one. 39 states have similar legislation, including Minnesota, where Best Buy is headquartered. Best Buy itself claims to adhere to these in its privacy policy.
That said, I unfortunately have learned the hard way that policies and laws do no good not enforced, and believe that Best Buy has not done enough to clean up its act.
The short story is that a laptop that I entrusted with Best Buy DC store for repair was stolen from the store (I believe by an employee). I endured 3 months of lies about its repair status before one employee finally saw fit to fess up and tell me that there was no record it had ever shipped from the store. Not only did Best Buy fail to protect my property, but they failed to disclose that the computer was missing and that I was risk of identity theft the entire time. Now I'm stuck paying for identity theft protection and credit monitoring for years ahead.
Despite Consumerist's efforts, Best Buy's privacy protection system is broken across the board.
I filed a lawsuit and have launched a blog detailing the background and motivation for the lawsuit, if anyone is interested.
http://bestbuybadbuyboycott.blogspot.com/
RC
Slashdot Mirror
First there ARE laws that make what the employees did illegal and Best Buy liable. It varies from state to state, but Washington, DC has both Consumer protection legislation that requires Best Buy to adopt reasonable safeguards against the theft of personal information and a privacy breach notification law that requires Best Buy to notify customers of potential security breach as soon as they become aware of one. 39 states have similar legislation, including Minnesota, where Best Buy is headquartered. Best Buy itself claims to adhere to these in its privacy policy. That said, I unfortunately have learned the hard way that policies and laws do no good not enforced, and believe that Best Buy has not done enough to clean up its act. The short story is that a laptop that I entrusted with Best Buy DC store for repair was stolen from the store (I believe by an employee). I endured 3 months of lies about its repair status before one employee finally saw fit to fess up and tell me that there was no record it had ever shipped from the store. Not only did Best Buy fail to protect my property, but they failed to disclose that the computer was missing and that I was risk of identity theft the entire time. Now I'm stuck paying for identity theft protection and credit monitoring for years ahead. Despite Consumerist's efforts, Best Buy's privacy protection system is broken across the board. I filed a lawsuit and have launched a blog detailing the background and motivation for the lawsuit, if anyone is interested. http://bestbuybadbuyboycott.blogspot.com/ RC