The Chairman of the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) warned
that the agency will begin prosecuting companies that divulge private consumer
information as a result of security glitches. Chairman Timothy Muris, speaking
on June 11, 2002 at the Networked Economy Summit sponsored by George Mason
University in Reston, VA, said
that he expects more actions against companies, particularly if the release was
the result of poor security practices.
In January 2002 the FTC announced
a settlement with Eli Lilly and Co. resulting from the company’s inadvertent
release of some 700 customer addresses caused by e-mails sent to subscribers of
Prozac Web site updates which included all the addresses in the "To"
field of the message.
