Low-tech privacy breach earns Aetna lawsuit for revealing HIV patients

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It seems like we hear about a new data breach every day. Today, we're bringing news of yet another-but this one happened in the old-school sense of the term. And it has earned the Aetna insurance giant a class-action lawsuit.

Aetna is accused of breaching the privacy rights of 12,000 customers in 23 states by snail-mailing them letters in which the words "filling prescriptions for HIV" could be read through the transparent window on the envelopes.

The Legal Action Center filed the suit (PDF), which includes the following:

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