Topic: Woman says company published check for 'right arm'

[Vipre]

Woman says company published check for 'right arm'
From Associated Press
June 06, 2008 1:47 PM EDT
PITTSBURGH - A Pittsburgh woman who sent Comcast Corp. a check made out for "My Right Arm and Zero Dollars" is up in arms because she says someone published a copy of the check on the Internet.

Krista Cooney and her husband Chad are suing the Philadelphia-based cable television company for invasion of privacy. They say an unknown Comcast employee circulated a copy of the check - containing their personal banking information - along with a snide comment. They say a Colorado man saw the image and alerted them.

A Comcast official did not immediately comment on the suit.

The suit says Cooney sent the check last summer because she was unhappy with a large bill she received after subscribing to bundled services for her cable television, Internet and telephone
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Aside from finding this oddly funny I wonder if she has a case. Are "gag" or non payment checks subject to some sort of privacy laws? Is it reasonable to expect a company to treat as confidential a check that reads "BITE ME" and nothing else across it's face?

[Dash Jones]

Actually, a check has personal information inclusive of more than just a name, but a name, normally an address, maybe a phone number, and a checking account number and routing number.  Given that information, I could not only effectively empty her bank account, but also perhaps find out the rest of her identity information and use it to get credit cards, loans, and other stuff...

So...since there are laws against identity theft...I'd say if there isn't there should be laws against posting things like that on a public veiwable spot instead of a private secure website.

[Tulwar]

Jones is right.  The woman is an idiot, no two ways about that, but the cable company had already assumed responciblity for her personal information when she opened her account.  If an officer of the company was tickled and wanted share the image of the check outside the company, then that employee was oblidged to distort the personal information.  That's just common sense, not that the woman who sent the check had any, but that's beside the point.  After ten years of litigation, the courts might pay her and her lawyer enough to cover their respective cable bills.  Unless they're into Pay-Per-View, in that case, there's nothing in the world that can help them.

Unfortunately, the woman can't be prosecuted for fraud.  No court would assume anybody would take that check for anything but a joke.  Just the same, I'd like to see the cable company collect.

[Dracho]

There are 42 state data breach laws and publishing a check violates every one of them.  Comcast won't think this is funny when it all done.