Posted on 08/02/2018 11:51:38 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
SEATTLE - An African-American woman says Puget Sound Energy emailed her a racial slur to use as the temporary password to her online account.
Erica Conway believes the insult was deliberate and wants the company to get to the bottom of it.
“I clicked “forgot password” and got a temporary password from PSE and it was capitol N-I-G-G-A and I was quite shocked.”
“It was like an emotional roller coaster. Shock, disbelief, disgusted, angry. It was just yeah, even now I'm just kind of like I cannot believe this. I just can't believe it.”
Conway is a longtime volunteer of the Seattle chapter of the NAACP.
She showed us past temporary passcodes that were just random letters and numbers, so she believes this passcode slur was created deliberately.
“I was truly in disbelief. Because this is not normal, and this is not what a temporary password is supposed to say."
Conway told us she complained to a customer service agent at PSE's Bothell call center. But that the agent didn't take the slur seriously.
“I had said 'Do you guys screen out certain words?' and Lydia was, like, “Yes we do.” And I said, 'Well you guys didn't screen out this word'' And she said, 'Why would we?” and I said, “What do you mean why would we? This is an offensive word.' And she stated to me, No one uses that word anymore.' And I was, like, where are you living, what planet are you living on?
PSE spokeswoman Janet Kim responded, “This was offensive, there was no question about that, we apologize to this customer, the community, for what has happened, and we are trying to do what we can to make it right.”
PSE insists the slur was a computer-generated mistake.
“These passwords are generated automatically so they go straight from the system straight to the customers. So, it's not able to be accessed by an employee.”
Conway and the Seattle NAACP wants a meeting with PSE to discuss the incident and what the company will do to keep it from happening in the future.
PSE says it has taken immediate steps to make sure temporary passwords are a scrambled mix of letters and numbers. And next month it will begin using a new system that gets rid of temporary passwords all together.
“This is 2018; we're still dealing with issues like this," Conway said "It's pretty sad. As a society, it's pretty sad.”
Stop the presses! An “n word” derivative was used!!!
realizing their mistake immediately, they sent another computer generated password... D-U-M-B-A-S-S
““I had said ‘Do you guys screen out certain words?’ and Lydia was, like, “Yes we do.” And I said, ‘Well you guys didn’t screen out this word’’ And she said, ‘Why would we?” and I said, “What do you mean why would we? This is an offensive word.’ And she stated to me, No one uses that word anymore.’ And I was, like, where are you living, what planet are you living on?”
Lots of blacks and rap “stars” can’t get ENOUGH use of the word.
So PSE has this woman’s race on file? The aggrievements are getting stupid.
PSE sent me this code. I’m going to sue.
CRAKA
Hey — that’s MY password! :-P
I call BS.
realizing their mistake immediately, they sent another computer generated password... M-Y-N-I-G-G-A
It’s not hard to figure out how this happened. They were probably relying on an exception list that didn’t include this particular spelling.
I see the problem.
They forgot, “at least 1 special character and 1 numeral”
Our ex president was dancing to a song called Niggas in Paris.......it is only offensive if you want it to be, depending on the situation.
If modern urban culture would not change words by using urban spelling none of this matterz.
Something about this story and listening to the lady speak, makes me believe it happened as she described. There is a lot that can be done with computer generated data. Most today’s young people have figured that out long before the fourth grade.
I don’t think it was sanctioned by the employer, but was a stupid prank. They grow up hearing those terms in so called ‘music’ that makes the performers wealthy. None of those rich performers ever get into trouble for screaming it out loud and clear. What’s a Millenial to think?
Fire the computer!!
I’m not sure that I believe this story.
I’ve written password generating programs. (Yes.)
The passwords were formatted so that this could not possibly have happened.
If the format had been different, I would have put in code to prevent the obvious swear words and racial slurs. Not hard.
Regardless, this word came out of a computer program. You cannot sue a computer program, but that won’t stop the lawyers who see an easy win here. Remember the one who sued because the “n word” was in one of Microsoft’s dictionaries?
What kind of system uses a five letter password???
8-10 characters including uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters is a minimum...
In a week, this will be found to be a hoax. And THAT will never be reported.
Looking for a quick payoff.
$5k for niggling.
Oops, my bad.
5.56mm
I’m sure this can all be straightened out with a check for 100k!
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