This is going to be a quick post, but I will do another one afterwords. I just came across this ad on Digg.com and found it a bit funny. It’s an advertisement by Toyota promoting a guide on how to fix your gas pedal!

If you didn’t know before, Toyota is going through some hard times right now as the gas pedals on some of their cars are sticking and causing accidents. I just find it funny how they are doing this!

Today in my Risk Assessment class, we actually touched on this and how holding data could be a potential risk. Yes, believe it or not, I was paying attention! Companies are required to hold on to their customer records and all data for at least 7 years. After that time, they are allowed ti dispose of it. Here’s the thing, if they do not dispose of it and a court asks for data from the last 20 years, if they do have it they MUST give it up.

Okay, but how is that a risk? Lets say Toyota has customer records from everyone who bought a certain car all the way back until the year 2000. Now, there is a class action lawsuit against Toyota for all owners of that car and everyone that has one will be granted $1000. The courts ask Toyota for their customer records back until the 1980s, obviously not expecting 30 years worth! If Toyota only had 7 years worth of data, they may only need to pay put $500 million in fees. If they kept data for the 10 year period, they would be paying out even more since they have more records of customers. There’s a little Risk and data management lesson for you!

Okay, I went a little off topic, this was suppose to be a small post just containing a picture! Any-who, here is the picture:

Tags: fix your toyota gas pedal, Toyota