Tesla class action claims data breach exposed employee info

Tesla class action overview: 

• Who: Plaintiff April Cobb filed a class action lawsuit against Tesla Motors Inc.
• Why: Cobb and thousands of other former Tesla employees had their personal information stolen in the Tesla data breach around May 10.
• Where: The Tesla data breach class action was filed in federal court in Pennsylvania.

A new class action lawsuit against Tesla Motors alleges the company is responsible for failing to protect the personal information of thousands of former employees in a data breach earlier this year.

Tesla has a known duty to protect the personal information it keeps on employees and, as a sophisticated company, it has the ability to create systems to protect that system, plaintiff April Cobb claims in the Tesla class action.

“Companies such as Tesla that handle sensitive PII owe a duty to the individuals to whom that data relates,” the Tesla data breach class action says. “This duty arises because it is foreseeable that the exposure of PII to unauthorized persons — and especially hackers with nefarious intentions — will result in harm to the affected individuals, including, but not limited to, the invasion of their private financial matters.”

Former Tesla employees’ Social Security numbers, other data allegedly stolen

The stolen information includes former employees’ names, Social Security numbers and birthdates, the class action lawsuit claims.

That puts the Tesla employees at risk for future identity theft fraud and intrusion of their financial privacy, the Tesla lawsuit says. The data has a financial value with personal information being sold for prices between $40 to $200 per person and bank details costing between $50 to $200. Entire data breaches can be sold for between $999 to $4,995, the Tesla employee data breach lawsuit claims.

Tesla is also facing a class action lawsuit claiming that it falsely promised three years of supercharging for consumers who purchased its Model S and Model X vehicles between April and June 2023.

Have you had your personal information stolen in a data breach? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiff is represented by Cary L. Flitter, Andrew M. Milz and Jody Thomas López-Jacobs of Flitter Milz PC, along with James A. Francis and Jordan Sartell of Francis Mailman Soumilas PC.

The Tesla employee data breach class action lawsuit is Cobb v. Tesla Inc. d/b/a Tesla Motors Inc., Case No. 5:23-cv-03665, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:

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