A user on TikTok is calling out Delta Airlines after claiming that an email mixup led to the company sending their personal information to a random email address.
In a video with over 20,000 views, TikTok user YK Hong (@ykhong) shares how they claim this incident occurred.
“Delta Airlines just shared with a complete stranger an entire email thread that included address information, tons of emails of my family members, as well as bank account information,” Hong says.
@ykhong Data provacy breach by Delta Airlines
♬ original sound – YK
According to Hong, they had been talking with Delta over the course of seven months in an attempt to receive a refund for a canceled flight.
After seven months, they say the company’s E.U. office responded that they were going to reimburse Hong and asked for several personal details in order to do so. Hong provided the requested details.
“But in their most recent email to me, where they included all of that information and the entire thread from the last seven months, I noticed that there was an entirely random Yahoo address on that final email,” Hong shares.
“When I looked closer, I saw that the Yahoo address handle included the word ‘hong,’ which of course is my last name, but is not my email [and] has nothing to do with anyone’s email in any of the thread at all,” they continue.
“This is a serious data privacy leak on behalf of Delta Airlines,” Hong states. “They’ve compromised a ton of data about myself as well as my family, and this of course puts myself and my family at risk for identity theft and fraud.”
In the comments section, many users suggested that Hong reach out to Delta’s Data Protection Officer Renee Lopez-Pineda, whose email is privacy@delta.com.
However, others suggested that Hong go further.
“A lawyer,” wrote one user. “you need to be speaking to a lawyer.”
“Report them [to your] state Attorney General,” another added. “They generally handle data breaches. Depending on [your] state their may be another agency [to] loop in [too].”
In a follow-up video, Hong states how Delta responded to them but did not acknowledge the “racism or the privacy breach.”
@ykhong Replying to @afrikanaunty ♬ original sound – YK
“All they acknowledged was the refund for the canceled flight that I originally wrote them about,” Hong says. The TikToker claims once they brought it to their attention once again, Delta simply created a new thread and thanked Hong for “continuing to be a Diamond Medallion member.”
According to Hong, they replied to Delta urging them to face accountability and go back to the original thread to address the alleged racism and data breach.
“Haven’t heard back from them since,” Hong concludes.
We’ve reached out to Delta via the media contact form and Hong via Instagram direct message.
