October 23, 2013
In the itnews article Big data linked to inevitable privacy breaches raises the issue of data mining and de anonymisation. It went to the lengths of seeking comment from the Privacy Commissioner who said Read the rest of this entry »
October 22, 2013
The UK Information Commissioner has served the Ministry of Justice with a £140,000 monetary penalty after a data breach involving it sending details of all prisoners serving at a Cardiff prison to three of the inmate’s families.
The ICO press release (found here) provides:
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has served the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) with a monetary penalty of £140,000 after a serious data breach Read the rest of this entry »
October 21, 2013
Facebook is the classic example of turning the user into the product. The data users blithely provide to Facebook is mined furiously and applying alogorhithims turned into advertising gold. The user doesn’t pay to post his or her heartfelt thoughts, cute pictures of mitsy and how the twins look so cute bathing before bed time (something they may not thank Mum for in 20+ years). Details from the timeline, likes and dislikes and shopping and personal conquests all become part of the vast array of data that helps advertisers to pitch their product. Much the same applies to loyalty cards/programs. In Priceline to get more than loyalty for insurance the Age reports that Priceline has agreed with ACE Insurance to have the latter promote health insurance to its Sister Club members. The story provides:
Priceline Pharmacy Read the rest of this entry »
Today the Age published, or republished from the New York Times, an apt article on privacy, Be warned, Orwellian logic has come full circle, on privacy and surveillance in the modern day.
It provides:
In his Read the rest of this entry »
In Doctor suspicious of infidelity installs spyware in wife’s car; lands up in jail the Daily Bhaskar reports on a very suspicious husband who Read the rest of this entry »
October 17, 2013
The PC World article Biggest data security threats come from inside, report says highlights the main threat to data security comes from within an organisation. The story is based on a report by Forrester, Understand the State of Data Security and Privacy. The Report found that that only 42%of small and midsize business workforce received training on how to remain secure at work. Only 57 % said Read the rest of this entry »
October 16, 2013
A former Barclays bank employee was fined after being prosecuted under the Data Protection Act for illegally accessing details of a customer’s account. The fine of £3,360 is quite small given the nature of the intrusion, accessing the accounts on 22 occasions, and quite an eggregious breach of trust. The ICO is seeking greater penalties for such breaches.
The ICO media release of 25 September 2013, Barclays Bank employee prosecuted for illegally accessing customer’s account, provides:
A former Barclays Bank employee has been fined £3,360 after illegally accessing the details of a customer’s account. In one case the employee, Jennifer Addo, found out the number of children the customer had and passed the details to the customer’s then partner, who was a friend of Ms Addo.
Appearing at Read the rest of this entry »
In Exclusive: Blue-chip hacking scandal – at last, the investigations into those on Soca list begin the Independent reports on an investigation by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office into law firms, financial organisations and insurance organisations who unlawfully obtained personal information through the use of private investigators.
It provides:
Nineteen blue-chip clients of corrupt private investigators Read the rest of this entry »
The Royal Veterinary College has entered into an undertaking under the Data Protection Act 1998 as a result of a member of its staff losing data, passport images of six job applicants, stored on his/her personal camera in December 2012. At the time the College had no policy about how personal information stored for work should be looked after on personal devices.
The ICO’s media release (found here) relevantly provides:
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is warning organisations that they must make sure that their data protection policies reflect how the modern workforce are using personal devices for work.
With a YouGov survey earlier this year showing that 47% of all UK employees now use their smartphone, tablet PC or other portable device for work purposes there is a concern Read the rest of this entry »
The Privacy Commissioner has issued a media release announcing a privacy breach by AAPT. The breaches involved failing to adequately protect data from unauthorised access, a hacking attack. As it transpires AAPT failed to destroy or de identify old data it held.
The media release (found here) provides:
The Australian Privacy Commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim, has found AAPT Limited breached the Privacy Act for failing to adequately protect customer data from unauthorised access. The Commissioner also found that AAPT had failed to comply with its obligation to destroy or permanently de-identify information no longer in use.
In July 2012, AAPT customer data held on servers hosted by IT contractor Melbourne IT, was hacked and published online.
‘While I Read the rest of this entry »