Maybe he thinks any publicity is good publicity, but the Jackson Hewitt franchise owner who was caught dumping employee and client files containing personal information has announced that he’s running for City Council.
News4Jax reports:
A former tax service franchise owner who admitted Monday to dumping employees’ and customers’ personal information in the trash outside a Southside office plaza wants to run for City Council in March.
“I did dump some stuff out there. I didn’t know it was personal information,” said Steven Burnett, who owned the Jackson Hewitt franchise.
Neighbors said they caught Burnett dumping hundreds of employee and client files full of sensitive information in the community Dumpster Monday.
The documents included W-2 forms, bank statements, copies of driver’s licenses and Social Security information.
[…]
Burnett did later pay to have everything he threw away shredded, but only after he was caught.
A neighbor of Burnett’s said he won’t let this event sway his vote in a few months.
“It was an unwise decision, but these are humans in politics. Everyone makes mistakes,” the neighbor said.
Hopefully, the majority of voters will not be so forgiving. Look at this picture from News4Jax, below. Whoever’s running against him should just keep pointing to it with a voiceover of Burnett claiming he didn’t know what he was throwing out.
Do you believe he didn’t know he was dumping personal information? If you do, I have a bridge in Staten Island I’d like to discuss you (I love the Brooklyn Bridge too much to ever sell that one).
So… would you vote for someone who just threw out so many people’s personal info this way?
And yoo hoo, Congress, can you hear me NOW about why we need a protection and data breach law that includes paper records>
Is he really that dumb? Will the council have to hire a person to read papers to him since clearly he is illiterate and doesn’t understand written words on the papers he tossed carelessly. Wonder how much money he will spend carelessly also- oops, I didn’t realize I couldn’t do that is not a defense?
Lawmakers – not only do you need a bill mandating rendering personal information unreadable but law enforcement must be strong and swift with arrests, fines and even jail time if a judge demands it. This would not be tolerated in Texas – the minute State AG Abbott hears about it, he’s on top of it. Laws are needed but with the full backing of the STate AG and all law enforcement in the state.