NEWS: Disney Faces Lawsuit Over Employee Data Breach

The Walt Disney Company is no stranger to lawsuits.

©Disney | Walt Disney Company Headquarters

In August, the company was sued for negligence after a Disney World visitor was knocked over and injured in Magic Kingdom. In May, the company was hit with a lawsuit over alleged labor violations. In February, the company was sued over its new sports streaming service that Disney planned on launching in partnership with Fox, ESPN, and Warner Bros./Discovery. Now, the company is facing a new lawsuit, this time over an employee data breach.

According to The L.A. Times, the Walt Disney Co. has been hit with a class action lawsuit for negligence, breach of implied contract, and other misconduct after the company suffered from a huge data breach earlier this year. The breach resulted in data from Disney’s internal Slack workplace system being leaked online, including discussions about advertising, studio technology, and interview candidates. The breach also included tens of thousands of spreadsheets and PDFs, as well as millions of internal messages sent on Slack.

Walt Disney Company Headquarters ©LA Times

An official complaint was filed against the company on Thursday against Disney and Disney California Adventure. The complaint accuses Disney of violating privacy laws by not doing enough to prevent the leak or notifying victims of how big the leak had been. Thousands of Cast Members are represented by the class action suit and are described as people who gave “highly sensitive personal information” to Disney related to their employment with the company. It is believed this is part of the information that was compromised during the data breach.

©Disney

The Slack messages contained sensitive information belong to Disney Cruise Line employees, including passport numbers, Visa details, birthplaces, and physical addresses. Note that it had been reported that Disney planned to stop using Slack after the breach. Lawsuit demands include Disney taking steps to reinforce its security system, as well as educate its employees about the risks of the breach. The plaintiff is also seeking an unspecified amount in damages, as well as a trial by jury.

We’ll keep an eye out for more details about this lawsuit, so stay tuned to DFB for more.