5 massive privacy scandals that rocked the world – and made millions of victims

Illustration of a thief escaping with a white fingerprint.

Data Privacy Week 2025

(Image credit: We Are/via Getty Images)

If you didn’t know already, now you do – it’s Data Privacy Week (January 27th to 31st)! The brainchild of the National Cybersecurity Alliance, it aims to arm you with everything you need to spot and avoid the biggest risks to your data privacy and “Take control of your data”.

Personal information, by definition, is meant to stay private. It’s a concept so deeply ingrained in our collective psyche that saying it out loud feels almost redundant. Yet, in those rare and baffling moments when it is said – like when the SEC reminded Ticketmaster of this fundamental truth during their lawsuit – it feels almost surreal.