Thy Brother Came with Subtlety: How a Cause of Action Against Companies Who Leak Data Can Increase Security in the Digital Age

Amidst such a large amount of information leaks are inevitable, with some being “personal information” such as a name, social security number, driver’s license, a bank or credit account number, medical information, or health insurance information. 4 The data flood is everywhere and the levies cannot hold. When personal data is leaked, that victim should, in limited circumstances, have a remedy against the company that allowed the leak to happen. Such data leaks are becoming commonplace. On New Years Day 2014, users of the smartphone application—commonly referred to as an “app”— Snapchat, 5 woke to the news that phone numbers and usernames associated