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UK Company Sold Workers' Secret Data 122

Posted by kdawson from the art-of-the-blacklist dept.
krou writes "The BBC is reporting that the Information Commissioner's Office has shut down a company in the UK for a serious breach of the Data Protection Act. It claims that the company, The Consulting Association in Droitwich, Worcs, ran a secret system that it repeatedly denied existed for 15 years, selling workers' confidential data, including union activities, to building firms, allowing potential employers to unlawfully vet job applicants. About 3,213 workers were in the database, and other information included data on personal relationships, political affiliations, and employment histories. More than 40 firms are believed to have used the service, paying a £3,000 annual fee, and each of them will be investigated, too." The article says that The Consulting Association faces a £5,000 fine — after pulling in £1.8 million over 15 years with its illegal blacklist.

Comment Re:It's pretty standard these days (Score 1) 329

by cnock (#27051039) Attached to: Detecting Click Tracks
I hear this complaint a lot, usually from people who don't take the time to seek out "good" music. By "good" music, I mean music that suits you personally, that moves you personally.

There is more music being made today than ever before, thanks to technology. The downside is that anybody with Garage Band can churn out shit, but it also means that there is some really great, moving music being released independently, on small labels, and the like.

Go seek it out, it is there. I am almost 40 and I buy a lot of current music, none of it that you'd hear on the radio/tv/etc. And I don't mean to be elitist, but do a little surfing and there is greatness being produced all the time. And boy is it rewarding when you find it.
The Internet

UK Politician Criticised For Using Hotmail 151

Posted by samzenpus from the make-better-choices dept.
nk497 writes "The UK justice secretary Jack Straw has been criticised for using Hotmail as his official government email account after he apparently fell foul of a Nigerian spammer in a phishing attack. A security researcher said using such an account not only left the government in security trouble, but meant any emails sent could not be necessarily accessed via the Freedom of Information Act."
Businesses

Amazon.com Reporting This Holiday Season Their "Best Ever" 314

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the at-least-someone-doesn't-need-a-bailout dept.
In a refreshing break from all the doom and gloom, Amazon.com is calling this holiday season their best ever. Reporting a 44 percent rise in the number of items sold, they are refusing to provide actual dollar amounts, so it is still a very subjective measurement. "Amazon customers ordered more than 6.3 million items on Dec. 15, compared with roughly 5.4 million on its peak day last year, the company said. It shipped more than 5.6 million products on its best day, a 44 percent rise over 2007, when it shipped about 3.9 million on its busiest day. The company did not provide dollar figures and wouldn't say whether the average value of orders had changed, and the jumps it reported Friday are in line with increases Amazon has seen since it started releasing the figures in 2002."
Google

Google Antiphishing Site Exposed Private User Data 69

Posted by kdawson from the self-phishing dept.
Juha-Matti Laurio writes "Google has removed a few user names and passwords posted inadvertently to a phishing blacklist it compiles and makes publicly available on the Web. This information was submitted to Google by Firefox users with the browser's internal antiphishing toolbar. This feature, developed in cooperation with Google, enables users to report potential phishing sites to Google's blacklist database. Google has reportedly implemented a new mechanism detecting login data in submitted URLs to prevent sensitive information from getting posted to the list." The article notes that news of this minor lapse may obscure the ongoing problem of sensitive data exposed on the Web and findable via Google and other search services.
User Journal

Journal Journal: The first clue

Journal by cnock
The first clue is under a silver candle holder in the office.

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