CBS DFW sat on a data leak story since last year – trying to give Dallas County a chance to address the fact that court records freely available online contained tons of personal identity and sensitive information on residents and minor children. The station did not want to make criminals aware of the treasure trove of information, although criminals may already have been aware of it for all we know. The only people who may not have known are those who were the potential victims.
The news team recognized the problem in August, 2015, and reached out to the county court system then. But while tens of thousands of people continued to have their personal information at risk, the county did not take prompt or effective action to protect them.
You can read CBS’s report on the steps they took and bureaucratic garbage here.
Do you think the station did the right thing in withholding publication for so long?