When my daughter was born 12 years ago, I was delighted when a dear friend bought us three shares in Disney stock. Now I'm not so delighted.

Today, I received a letter in the mail from an Orwellian-sounding company called BNY Mellon Shareholder Services, notifying me that "they could not account for one of several boxes of data back up tapes that they were transporting" to an off-site storage facility.

And they have now determined that "one or more tapes" in the missing box contained my personal information, including my social security number.

In their infinite generosity, they've offered me a two-year credit monitoring service for free.
It took some close reading of the letter before I got really enraged.
Turns out this "missing box" was discovered four months ago.

"Due to the way information was stored on the tapes in the missing box, it took some time to determine whose missing information was contained on those tapes."

Turns out this "missing box" was discovered four months ago.
Then, I went online and did a quick google search and discovered a CNET.com story that ran June 4, more than three weeks ago, detailling the "missing" information.

"(An) unnamed storage vendor was transporting 10 boxes of back-up data storage tapes with shareholder information from BNY Mellon Shareowner Services' facility in New Jersey to an off-site storage facility when one box was discovered missing. BNY Mellon Shareowner Services is a stock transfer agent and stock plan administrator for public companies."

Isn't it wonderful that my material may be sitting somewhere off the New Jersey Turnpike? And can you tell me why this bank---which, according to this story, supposedly began notifying customers in mid-May--didn't send me out a letter until June 27, which I received today?

Didn't this warrant springing for overnight mail?

So far, I haven't detected anyone has attempted to use my personal information, but I haven't checked my daughter's credit report yet. But Disney and BNY Mellon Shareowner Services, if you are out there, this is what I think you owe me:

--an apology. There wasn't one anywhere in the single spaced one and a half page letter.
--an apology from a person. There was no signature or name of anyone from BNY Mellon on the letter.
--a promise that the company will go after this "archive services vendor," which was responsible for the missing box.
--some transparency and integrity. It was also a vendor that was responsible for another missing box of information that went missing a few months later, according to the CNET report. Was it the same vendor? Why isn't its name being published?
--a guarantee that if I or my daughter am a victim of identity theft that this company will pay whatever costs are involved to resurrect my credit.

Stumble It!