Librarian and privacy advocate Jessamyn West was outraged when she heard about the massive data breach affecting 134 million people at credit reporting agency Equifax. So the Randolph librarian decided to sue the multi-billion dollar company in Vermont Small Claims Court.
West said in her summons to the credit reporting company asserts the company "acted recklessly," and ignored the basics of good data security.
She asserts the Atlanta-based company's mismanagement of the breach, and subsequent response, has caused her and millions of others "emotional distress."
"You bother because you tell companies there are actual consequences for their sloppy data handling practices," West told Vermont Edition host Jane Lindholm. "In your dream world, you get people worried about lots of little ankle-biting people like myself asking them for $5,000 in every state in the country, and maybe it causes them to think twice and be a little more careful with their data security."
Listen to her conversation with VPR's Jane Lindholm above.
For more on West's process, and to follow the case, click here.
