The PSN security breach has created quite a bit of emotional distress.
The U.S. is often viewed as the more litigious neighbor, but the recent PSN security breach also has Canadians heading for the courts. The Toronto law firm of McPhadden, Samac, and Tuovi is proposing a $1 billion class action lawsuit against Sony Japan, Sony America, Sony Canada, and just about everyone associated with Sony for breach of privacy related to 100 million compromised PSN and Station.com accounts. The $1 billion includes damages and would require Sony to cover the costs for credit card security services and fraud insurance for a two-year period.
The primary plaintiff in the lawsuit is 21-year-old Natasha Maksimovic of Mississauga, Ont., who alleges that Sony “failed to adequately safeguard certain personal information, financial data and usage data.” Maksimovic says that she was forced to sign up for the PSN and Qriocity in order to use her PSP and Sony eBook reader, and that the breach of security has been a source of “fear, anxiety (and) emotional distress.”
“If you can’t trust a huge multinational corporation like Sony to protect your private information, who can you trust?” asked Maksimovic.
Since Maksimovic is looking to file a $1 billion lawsuit, I can only assume that she’s being sincere, and that makes for one of the more unintentionally hilarious quotes I’ve seen in a while. I’m still mad at Sony, but anybody stupid or naïve enough to blindly trust a faceless corporation with thousands of anonymous employees and millions of customers is inevitably going to be disillusioned. Sony would obviously like to be able to guarantee security – the recent backlash is proof of that – but it’s not exactly a surprise to learn that a corporation can be beat.
As for the lawsuit itself, I don’t know if this one has much of a chance. Sony has already offered to provide complimentary security assistance for affected customers, and I doubt a judge is going to hand out a full $1 billion in damages. Still, crazier things have happened, so we’ll have to wait and see how the case plays out in court.
Sony Canada has 20 days to respond, while Sony America has 40 days and other Sony entities have a full 60 days to issue a statement of defense.
Source: CBC
