Katie Peralta reports:
A partner of the Boy Scouts of America inadvertently exposed the personal information of children and their parents last month.
What happened: Boy Scouts nationwide sell popcorn to raise funds for activities like camping trips — just like Girl Scouts sell cookies. To facilitate the sales process, Boy Scouts of America uses a third-party fundraising organization called Trails End.
All scouts are instructed to enter certain personal information so they can attain a public sales page, which they can use to share with friends and family members to drum up their popcorn sales. Scouts and their parents share these pages on social media, so it’s possible to find them through a Google search.
Last week, Trails End said it notified Boy Scouts of America and local councils of “a data incident” that a web developer noticed. Certain information — including children’s full names, dates of birth, email addresses, phone number, parent names, favorite product and affiliation (council, district, unit) — was visible through a search.
Read more on Charlotte Agenda.