Missing Starbucks laptops had data on 60,000 employees, contractors

Starbucks said Friday that personal data on 60,000 present and former employees and contractors was on two laptop computers missing from its Seattle headquarters.

The company is offering free credit-protection services for those affected to guard against possible identity theft, in case the computers were stolen.

A year ago a Boeing laptop with data on 161,000 current and former employees, including names, Social Security numbers, and in some cases banking information, was stolen.

And last month the Port of Seattle said it could not locate CDs containing personal information on 7,000 people who work at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

At Starbucks, an employee realized in September that four laptops in a closet were gone.

Only two contained the personal data, including names, addresses and Social Security numbers.

A two-month investigation did not turn up the computers, so this week Starbucks sent letters to the last known addresses of all 60,000 people.

The data on the laptops was password-protected.

"We aren't convinced they're in the hands of someone who intends to misuse the information," spokeswoman Valerie O'Neil said. "We're just doing everything we can to locate them and protect [employees] whose information was on them."

Starbucks has contacted the police and is updating procedures around the protection of personal data, the company said.

It already has a policy that forbids carrying critical information like Social Security numbers on mobile equipment such as laptops. That data was placed on the missing computers before the policy went into effect, and the company did not realize it was there until an extensive analysis of back-up data showed that the files existed.

The people whose data is missing began working for Starbucks before Dec. 31, 2003. Most of them worked in the United States, and a few in Canada.

Starbucks did not break out how many were employees and how many were contractors.

Melissa Allison: 206-464-3312 or mallison@seattletimes.com