Are all data breaches created equal?

Companies both small and large have had to deal with a lot of hacker headaches recently, and for many people, news about these data breaches has caused them to change how they interact with the companies that have been affected. Not only is this bad for business for the companies, but it’s also embarrassing.

Even though revealing this information can make life difficult for the companies, it still makes sense that the public should always know about it, right? Well, maybe not. At least that’s what some executives have been saying lately.

It might come as no surprise that corporate executives would be the ones saying that not all data breaches need to be disclosed, but there are a couple different ways to look at this as a consumer that we’re going to focus on.

Tell me everything – In this situation, no matter what the hackers were able to get access to, you want to know about it. This could be sensitive data related to your password or credit card number, or it could be data about the company that’s not related to you.

Just tell me when it’s serious – Under this scenario, you’d only be notified when hackers access sensitive data about you that could be used to cause problems. Data breaches that don’t have a direct bearing on you or your privacy would not be publicly disclosed.

Which one of these options do you personally prefer? Disclosure might be the rule, but with the constant barrage of attacks that many companies have to deal with, some consumers might say that ignorance is bliss to some extent and the companies need to address their security issues privately unless there’s the chance that sensitive customer data has been compromised.

We’d love to hear your thinking on this matter in the comments section.

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