It seems like we hear about a new data breach every day. Today, we're bringing news of yet another—but this one happened in the old-school sense of the term. And it has earned the Aetna insurance giant a class-action lawsuit.

Aetna is accused of breaching the privacy rights of 12,000 customers in 23 states by snail-mailing them letters in which the words "filling prescriptions for HIV" could be read through the transparent window on the envelopes.

The Legal Action Center filed the suit (PDF), which includes the following:

Widespread stigma still exists about HIV and AIDS, leading to discrimination in employment, housing, education and health care, and to violence. The lawsuit filed today alleges that the information about HIV medication was clearly visible through the large transparent window of the Aetna envelope, and charges Aetna with carelessly and impermissibly revealing highly confidential HIV information of customers to their family members, roommates, friends, neighbors, landlords, mail carriers, and even complete strangers.

Privacy suits are sometimes brought by anonymous plaintiffs. In this instance, the suit was filed on behalf of Andrew Beckett, who was the real-life protagonist of the 1993 film Philadelphia. In the film (as in life), he filed an unlawful termination lawsuit based on AIDS discrimination.

Aetna, based in Connecticut, said that a vendor was responsible for using a windowed envelope that allowed personal information to be seen.

Here is what the mailings looked like, according to the lawsuit:

"We sincerely apologize to those affected by a mailing issue that inadvertently exposed the personal health information of some Aetna members. This type of mistake is unacceptable, and we are undertaking a full review of our processes to ensure something like this never happens again," the company said.

Ironically, the letters were sent to Aetna customers as fallout for two privacy lawsuits requiring HIV patients to acquire their medications through the mail. In response to the lawsuits, Aetna agreed to end that requirement and informed customers about that via the mail.

The suit seeks unspecified damages, a change in Aetna's mailing practices, and legal fees and costs.