Is anyone else suspicious about today’s revelation of another security breach, this time at Chase banks in New York.

WCBSTV.com is reporting that “researchers” for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) discovered banking records in the trash outside of Chase branches in New York which reveal the PII of Chase customers.

If substantiated, this would indeed be bad news for Chase customers whose Social Security numbers and other personal data would now be vulnerable to identity theft schemes. Not to mention a PR nightmare for Chase which faces a breakdown in customer trust if the allegations prove true.

A video clip showing the union’s dumpster-diving team unearthing the records appears on Youtube, CBSTV.com reports. However, does the fact that the SEIU is in a battle to unionize employees at the bank have anything to do with this “discovery”? Can we believe the so-called news, as revealed on Youtube? Anyone can post a video on the web. There’s no editing here, no fact-checking, no rebuttal.

The union “researchers” may have done Chase banking customers a favor by revealing some dirty laundry, and alerting Chase management to the need for better security processes. But I’m also wary of the agenda of vigilante journalists with a stake in the outcome of news they purport to reveal.