The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has taken action against the London Borough of Barnet, West Sussex County Council and Buckinghamshire County Council for breaching the Data Protection Act. A systemic lack of staff training on how to handle personal information has led to the loss of sensitive personal information relating to thousands of children. Sally-anne…
Category: Paper
UF officials notify patients of privacy breach
University of Florida officials have notified 2,047 people that their Social Security or Medicaid identification numbers were included on address labels affixed to letters inviting them to participate in a research study. The letters were sent through the U.S. Postal Service on May 24, and the information also was shared with a telephone survey company….
UK: Council will not face censure for Data Protection error
A council which wrongly included national insurance numbers on post will not face action over the blunder. Northumberland County Council has been told by the Information Commissioner that it will not be censured over the mistake. The Journal reported in April how, due to “human error”, the authority failed to remove national insurance numbers from…
Aetna recovers personal information of N.J. policy holders thought to have been discarded
Note: this is a follow-up to a breach previously described here Susan K. Livio reports: HARTFORD, Ct. — Aetna is alerting nearly 5,000 policy holders in New Jersey and Pennsylvania that it recovered a filing cabinet containing social security numbers and other personal information that it had thrown away when it moved out of an…
NJ: Social Security numbers, federal tax numbers released in error by Sparta Board of Education
Seth Augenstein reports: A local activist’s recent public records request resulted in some extra information — namely, some personal Social Security numbers, and some federal tax identification numbers. Jesse Wolosky, a well-known Sparta activist who recently lost a bid for a Township Council seat, put in a request for a list of vendors to the…
Ca: Confidential cemetery papers found dumped
Jenni Dunning reports: Residents are fuming after a cardboard box overflowing with personal information, including credit card numbers, was found outside a Hamilton cemetery yesterday. The discarded box [found “near a railway next to piles of broken tree branches and stinky garbage at the back of Hamilton Municipal Cemeteries’ headquarters on York Boulevard”], about the…