Its more like the DMV publishing driving record history with any identifying info removed, and then these people putting up some info on their driving record (along with identifying info) on a second website/db. Then someone can uses this second website (and the cross correlation algorithm) to id their record in the DMV publication and get more info on their driving record. Had those people not put any info on the second website their record could not be identified in the DMV publication.
Im not saying Netflix is innocent if they knew that such a cross-correlation algorithm existed. Im just saying that I dont want to live in society where a company can be sued for everything that can go wrong, atleast when that company is taking every precaution using state of the art knowledge. If netflix failed to hire db security experts to notify them on this possibility, then yes sue them. I dont know enough about db security to say if this hole was known when netflix launched the contest.
>>The bank reimbursed me in full. Nice.