What Epsilon's Email Breach Means For You

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - The breach at third-party marketer Epsilon provides a good opportunity for a reminder about online privacy and how your personal information is used online.

On Monday, Epsilon, which provides email list maintenance for major credit card issuers and retailers such as Best Buy, TiVo, and Target, notified consumers that its database had been hacked and their email addresses and names had been exposed, reported PCmag.com .

Potentially millions of clients of affected companies should be receiving emails from the companies warning them of the breach. The companies are asking clients to be cautious with emails they receive, according to The New York Times .

These companies are stressing that no personal or financial information was disclosed in the breach. But PCmag.com reported that email addresses could be used for spam purposes, and that some of these emails may appear like they came from a legitimate company.

The breach could result in a loss of clients and even lawsuits, Kevin Lee, CEO of online marketing firm Didit, told USA Today.

"Epsilon has a huge way to go to earn back the trust of its clients," Lee said.

"We are currently working with authorities and are conducting a full investigation. We are limited in what we can share," Jessica Simon, a spokeswoman for Epsilon, told The New York Times.

Who is Epsilon ? The company provides email marketing and other services for some 2,500 large companies.

So when you opt to get emails from a company or organization and you choose html over plain text versions, you are trackable by companies like Epsilon.

"A company like Epsilon can determine whether their client's email is going to your junk folder, or whether you opened it (and when), and what you clicked on when reading the email," wrote tech writer Kashmir Hill on Forbes.com . "Given what it knows about people's email habits, you likely won't be surprised to find out that Epsilon is also a data broker."

Epsilon considers itself "the world's leading source of data" with "information on over 250 million consumers" regarding their "lifestyles, attitudes, and behaviors," Hill wrote.