"FAR will I GO to save your data".. WELL you ?

Ok.. granted it's a poor headline, but I have a very good story for you.

The year was 2005 and I was fresh out of engineering college. In my first paid job, as a Graduate Engineer Trainee (GET), my monthly salary was the current price equivalent of 1 litre of Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon.

Interestingly, my first salary account was with a bank where a high school mate used to work. The guy decides to call me out of nowhere one day and among the many things he wanted to talk to me about was my meager GET salary. It was not a pleasant conversation from there on. How can he know what I earn ? Who will he tell next ! Next time I speak to someone from high school, should I expect them to know what I am making ?

Life went on and I forgot about this chapter... it's been 12 year and this happens in the US:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/business/dealbook/wells-fargo-confidential-data-release.html

To be clear, I am not on this list of fifty thousand high-net-worth-individual (HNI) customers, I would have liked that but I am not there yet :)

So, "a" person or "a" 3rd party firm has the power, like it or not, to expose what the institutions are there to guard... or so they think.

I hope the headline makes a little more sense now :)

P.S. I do hope that Wells is able to salvage the situation and give their clients the protection they deserve.