A few years ago, my information was leaked when LifeLabs got hacked. If you’re not familiar withe LifeLabs, it’s essentially a company that has a monopoly on medical testing services in my province. If you need to get blood drawn, pee in cup, drop off your poop, and the like, LifeLabs is basically your only option.
There was a class action lawsuit against LifeLabs, which I was a part of. The suit was settled almost a year ago and at the time, it was estimated the payout per person would be anywhere between $50 to $150. Now, if you think about it, even at $150, that doesn’t make up for the fact that your personal information was exposed to the Internet. Who knows what people did with some of this information. It’s possible that someone took this info, targeted a person, and then used the info to gain access to more info. The hassle and damage done by identity theft is hardly offset by a measly $150.
Well, after almost a year of administrative work, the payout for the settlement occurred this week. This morning, $7.86 was deposited into my account to make up for the fact that LifeLabs’ insecure systems allowed my personal information to be leaked. So not only did I (and everyone else affected) not get $150, I didn’t even get $50. It’s really quite telling how much your privacy is worth these days. $7.86 might get me a medium coffee at a decent coffee shop. Imagine the leak caused your credit to be ruined by identity theft. LifeLabs gives you $7.86 and says sorry, and waits for the next time you need to come in for a blood draw.
All of this is just so frustrating, from the leak itself to the compensation for the settlement. Companies will continue to leak personal information of their customers and the people affected will never get the full compensation they deserve.