Not Just The Government Who Abuses Access To Confidential Records
from the databases-of-confidential-info-get-abused,-period dept
Last month, we wrote that whenever a government entity puts together a large database of private, confidential data, it will get abused. In all honesty, we never should have limited that to just the "government." News reports are coming out about a case in Wisconsin where apparently employees at the state's largest energy company regularly snooped through private records to find out all sorts of information on all different kinds of people. Among the information accessed by employees: "credit and banking information, payment histories, address and phone numbers, and Social Security numbers." And, for what purposes? "Examples included a woman that often perused information on an ex-boyfriend, a woman who searched for the address of her child's father, and a part-time landlord who investigated prospective tenants. Another worker leaked information on a mayoral candidate's habit of paying heating bills late, possibly affecting the election." Once again, at this point, you probably should just assume that you have no privacy whatsoever -- but you should be wary any time someone tells you that the database they've put together is somehow secure and safe from privacy violations.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Who needs privacy anyway?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Who needs privacy anyway?
Agreed. Today innocence might be tomorrows vice.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What I mean to say
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: What I mean to say
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Is there a useful lesson here?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The Google ads on this page are DBT Therapy in Seattle, Male Survivors of Abuse, Polygraph Sexual Abusers and Clergy Sex Abuse Cases.
Haha, I wonder what that says about Techdirt Readers.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Firing Offense
If they look up the records of anyone other than a customer who they are helping they can and will be fired.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Abuse of "Confidential Records"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
another data point
Obviously, they would get fired if found doing this. But when people have to have access to records for legitimate purposes, it is very tough to keep them out of the records for illegitimate purposes.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Cops too
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Pretty cool though.
RecordOnlineGuide.blogspot.com
[ link to this | view in chronology ]