Xerox Employees Data on Stolen Laptop - 297 Employees

Announced January 23rd, 2007
Xerox - Willsonville, OR
297 Employees Personal Data

Governing Privacy Law or Rule - HIPAA, State Laws

WILSONVILLE -- Some employees at a local Xerox plant are worried about identity theft at a laptop was stolen from a manager’s car.

The UniteHere Local 14Z Union said a computer containing employee’s personal information was stolen from a human resources manager’s car in August.

Letters were sent out to about 297 employees four months later, the union said. (4 months? Why did it take 4 months?)

Some of the employees affected said they experienced credit problems before they were informed of the theft, according to the union.

“One person had multiple cell phone accounts taken out in his name a month and a half after the theft,” said Brian Wood, Xerox employee.

“We did the right thing,” said Erin Isselmann, Xerox Spokeswoman.

Isselmann said the company wanted to investigate whether any personal information was on the laptop before informing employees.

“That was a process that took a very long time,” Isselmann said.

Xerox is offering all of those employees free credit protection for the next year.

(kgw.com Drew Mikkelsen contributed to this report)