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left-of-center2012

(34,195 posts)
Thu Aug 2, 2018, 10:45 AM Aug 2018

Washington utility company sent black woman the n-word as her temporary password

Washington utility company says it accidentally sent black woman the n-word as her temporary password

A Washington state utility company this week admitted that it sent a black customer the n-word when she requested a new temporary password to log into her account — but the company insists that it was a random fluke. Local news station KIRO 7 reports that Erica Conway was shocked when she requested a temporary password and utility company Puget Sound Energy sent her back a password that read, “NiggaHHJ.”

“It was like an emotional roller coaster,” said Conway, who is a longtime volunteer for the Seattle chapter of the NAACP. “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.”

Puget Sound Energy said the racist password was not deliberately created and sent to Conway. “These passwords are generated automatically so they go straight from the system straight to the customers,” said PSE spokeswoman Janet Kim. “So, it’s not able to be accessed by an employee.”

Nonetheless, she apologized to Conway for the hurt caused by the accident.
“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,” she said.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/08/washington-utility-company-says-accidentally-sent-black-woman-n-word-temporary-password/

PSE sends racial slur to black woman

https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/pse-sends-racial-slur-to-black-woman/803894220
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Washington utility company sent black woman the n-word as her temporary password (Original Post) left-of-center2012 Aug 2018 OP
I am amazed how many times a day the face palm emoji fits these days. irisblue Aug 2018 #1
if the password was only constructed by letters lapfog_1 Aug 2018 #2
Wow! Just wow. spicysista Aug 2018 #3
Accidental racism MrScorpio Aug 2018 #4
something heaven05 Aug 2018 #5

lapfog_1

(30,231 posts)
2. if the password was only constructed by letters
Thu Aug 2, 2018, 10:59 AM
Aug 2018

the odds are 1 in 11,881,376 that this "random" password was generated.

Not to mention that any such password generating program should, as a matter of course, remove any "dictionary" words plus any offensive words from being randomly selected like "fuckyou21" for example.

They could easily assure this by removing the vowels a,e,i,o,u from the random letter choice. (but not completely).

Last, since this is a customer service thing... there should be a human involved in the final delivery who has the authority to simply request another random password.

But seriously... 1 in 12 million chance AND it was a POC in Washington state???

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