CVS The Latest To Throw Away Customer Info, Including Credit Cards, SSNs... And Prescription Info
from the nice-work dept
Witty Nickname who alerted us to the Texas Attorney General's decision to sue Radio Shack for dumping into the trash all sorts of customer info has now submitted that the same Texas AG has also decided to sue pharmacy chain CVS for similar moves. Like Radio Shack, CVS employees were apparently dumping customer records in the trash where any dumpster diver could have picked up all sorts of useful info (if by useful you mean useful for identity theft). That included all the expected info: name, address, phone number, social security number and credit cards. Of course, since it's a pharmacy, it also included what prescriptions those customers happened to be taking. You would think with a large chain like CVS that protecting customer info (especially what pharmaceuticals customers were taking) would be something that wasn't just important, but was drilled into employees. Apparently not. Does this mean that CVS will now lose 77% of its customers? Somehow I doubt it.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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HIPPA
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HIPPA is right
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Good Lord!
http://www.nongnu.org/cvs/
Guess that's what I get for being in front of a computer 16 hours a day.
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Did anyone say HIPPA?
Unlike previous regulations, HIPPA was supposed to have teeth. Where are they?
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I work for CVS
I hate it when a small number of stores make the whole chain look bad. The store I work at which I can tell you is not in Texas, (I am not surprised it happened in Texas though) is very careful with all information.
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HIPPA
I work doing tech support for a doctor's group. Anything that remotely relates to a patient is to be shredded including prints from test patient records. The cost is negligible compared to the cost of a single incident.
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Just so you know...
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Part of the problem is that EACH infraction is considered the act in whole, not EACH individual piece that was thrown out. Personally I think the fines and jail time would have much more impact AND actually get businesses attention if it was for EACH piece thrown out.
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Re: I Work for CVS
Well, he at least must be really smart, he managed to be an employee at CVS!
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My point was that it is not all stores and the whole chain should not have to suffer for what few stores have done. I also pointed out that we take every precaution at our store not to have this info taken. It is held IN the store at a special location and taken from the store by a truck which then takes it to an area mandated by the state where it can be incinerated. Almost all information goes into this area. Anything that has a customers NAME even goes in these areas.
Once again I apologize if you took offense.
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I love it!
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CATV
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