Sen. Wyden proposes bill that could jail executives who mishandle consumer data
In other news, Mark Zuckerberg just resigned as Facebook CEO.<p>For companies whose shareholders are not executives the executives will now have an incentive not to mess up. The problem is that executives rarely have enough overview over what is happening at the lowest layers of a company to ensure that data leaks could not happen, they might want to set the tone and environment but that by itself is absolutely no guarantee.<p>Though it is good - and probably effective - that it isn&#x27;t just the shareholders of a company that are punished (they have even less insight!) through fines, I highly doubt that jailtime is the right solution.<p>Personally I&#x27;d rather work with the carrot than the stick:<p>Any employee that comes forward with reports of mishandling of consumer data or the failure to report a data leak should be awarded a %age of the fines levied. That way there is a much bigger chance at actually learning about these things happening, where they happen and companies with a sick culture would still end up being reported on.