Unfortunately, they can't erase their details from other people's inboxes and can't prevent anyone from keeping copies. Essential has offered them a year's worth of identity theft protection service through LifeLock, though -- and a promise to prevent something similar from happening again. Rubin said the company has already "taken steps internally to add safeguards against this happening again in the future." It has disabled the misconfigured account and has pledged to invest more in its infrastructure and customer care, which it recognizes are important elements as it continues to grow.

Part of the founder's statement reads: