Ameriprise: Client Data Loss Limited

By Staff Writer

January 26, 2006 at 12:29 PM

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A Midwestern financial services company is emphasizing that the potential privacy damage caused by the recent theft of an employee laptop probably is limited.

The company, Ameriprise Financial Inc., Minneapolis, has announced that it is mailing notification letters to about 158,000 clients whose names and internal Ameriprise Financial account identification numbers were stored in a data file on the laptop, which was stolen from a locked car.

Some current and former financial advisors' names and Social Security numbers were in a separate data file on the same computer, but no other client or advisor identifying information was on the computer, Ameriprise says.

"Ameriprise Financial has received no reports that information lost in the theft has been used improperly, and the company has been working closely with law enforcement authorities to recover the laptop," the company says.

Client accounts could not be accessed with the information stored on the files, because clients need information other than account numbers to get into their accounts, Ameriprise says.

Ameriprise says the client data stolen did not include Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, birth dates or information from any accounts outside of Ameriprise.

The advisor data file did include Social Security numbers, but it did not include any other personal identity information, such as addresses, phone numbers or birth dates, Ameriprise says.

Ameriprise is offering a free 1-year credit monitoring program for affected advisors, the company says.

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