Privacy International Plans To Sue ACS:Law For Mishandling Information On Those It Threatened

from the oops dept

Tue, Sep 28th 2010 11:31am — Mike Masnick

A bit more fallout from the ACS:Law email leak. In the comments on our last post, cc pointed out that one of the discoveries in the leaks is that ACS:Law did not properly protect the private information of those who paid up after receiving a pre-settlement threat letter. In fact, the email leaks apparently revealed over 10k names, addresses and credit card details in some cases. Because of this, Privacy International is planning to file a lawsuit against the company, for not living up to EU privacy regulations on such information. PI is claiming that the company violated data protection laws by allowing sensitive information to be stored on a public-facing server, and not taking the "appropriate technical and organisational measures" to protect the data.

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Filed Under: data protection, privacy, uk
Companies: acs:law

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Simon, 28 Sep 2010 @ 11:44am

BSkyB finally challenging them too...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/blog/2010/sep/28/bskyb-acslaw-filesharing "UK's fourth largest broadband provider says it will no longer cooperate with controversial law firm"
Of course, it would have been nice if they'd done that from the start. When compelled to hand over IP addresses by court order, I would love an ISP to add some covering text along the lines of :
Please find attached the subscriber details that our records show was leasing the IP address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx on [date | time]. Note that this information pertains only to the person paying for the account, and does not identify individual users or devices.
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- Anonymous Coward, 28 Sep 2010 @ 12:43pm
  
  Re: BSkyB finally challenging them too...
  I love that! Make it so.
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Alias (profile), 28 Sep 2010 @ 11:45am

ACS: Law
Can't wait for the pre-settlement threat letter from PI to arrive. :)
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Richard (profile), 28 Sep 2010 @ 11:50am

UK TV News
This has been all over the mainstream media in the UK - including BBC news - so this particular cat is
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Hephaestus (profile), 28 Sep 2010 @ 11:53am

This really doesnt seem to be all that profitable any more ....
"The Information Commissioner has said a fine of �500,000 could be levied upon ACS:Law, which also faces a disciplinary tribunal by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, legal action by pressure group Privacy International and legal action from people it apparently wrongly-identified as downloading illegal material."

I would be neat if RIAA and MPAA e-mails became public. It would clean all of the RIAA lawyers out the Justice department.
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- Anonymous Coward, 28 Sep 2010 @ 12:01pm
  
  Re: This really doesnt seem to be all that profitable any more ....
  "It would clean all of the RIAA lawyers out the Justice "
  
  But just like zombies, there are always more to take their place.....
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Sep 2010 @ 12:28pm

This has the makings of a fine new soap opera. I shall call it "As the Worm Turns".
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- Dark Helmet (profile), 28 Sep 2010 @ 12:32pm
  
  Re:
  Huh. That actually IS way better than "General Hostile"....
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- Hosermage (profile), 28 Sep 2010 @ 1:03pm
  
  Re:
  Actually, the name "ACS: Law" sound close enough to quite a few popular shows already.
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  - chris (profile), 28 Sep 2010 @ 2:27pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Actually, the name "ACS: Law" sound close enough to quite a few popular shows already.
    
    i think all of those shows don't do enough to differentiate themselves. they should be titled by their most distinguishing characteristics:
    
    CSI: cute goth girl
    the show with ice-T
    law and order: sunglasses guy
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John Doe, 28 Sep 2010 @ 12:32pm

Reduced ROI
This should reduce the ROI on these lawsuits.
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Claire Rand, 28 Sep 2010 @ 12:42pm

Don't Forget...
Firstly a fine of "up to £500,000" could be the sort of "up to" your ISP uses so don't expect much, though I do think something will happen this time, just not much more than a public ticking off.

Also PI... ahhh yes, wasn't it one of their bods who was fine with the likes of phorm and their nasty little scam? perhaps ACS:Law should have hired him to produce a few statements.

The very fact that scams like this fall apart once people know about them is why the people trying to push them want this to end up much more criminal so they don't have the costs.

Slightly surprised the BBC is covering it though, they are normally more likely to point out the evils of file sharing. Maybe some things are slowly changing, at least until the blue/yellow ones yank the chain tight again.
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- Anonymous Coward, 28 Sep 2010 @ 5:19pm
  
  Re: Don't Forget...
  Blue/yellow ones?
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  - ethorad (profile), 29 Sep 2010 @ 3:15am
    
    Re: Re: Don't Forget...
    Presumably a reference to the coalition government in the UK - Conservative (blue) and Liberal Democrats (yellow). Because the BBC is a public broadcaster the government has various levers to use on the BBC, such as setting the level of the licence fee which funds the BBC.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 29 Sep 2010 @ 4:33am
      
      Re: Re: Re: Don't Forget...
      Ah, thanks. I figured it had something to do with the UK political system, but the allusion went right over my head.
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- Call me Al, 29 Sep 2010 @ 6:41am
  
  Re: Don't Forget...
  "Slightly surprised the BBC is covering it though, they are normally more likely to point out the evils of file sharing. Maybe some things are slowly changing, at least until the blue/yellow ones yank the chain tight again."
  
  Like with the 4chan thing a few weeks ago. The BBC actually presented the story and that it was in retaliation for anti-piracy efforts rather than just a random attack. I was pretty happy to see BBC actually present both sides on such an issue.
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Duke (profile), 28 Sep 2010 @ 12:58pm

Coverage
If you look at the MSM, it is only really being covered by the BBC and the Guardian (both fairly anti-Sky) and they are going with the "people" story of the personal details being available, not all the legal or file-sharing stuff. They've also really pushed the porn access. In particular, the BBC headlines refer to the "Porn list" and "Adult video-sharing list" - and they are still referring to "illegal filesharing" (admittedly with "alleged" sneaking in occasionally).

There are two sides to this story; one is the personal data leak, which is what the ICO, Privacy International and the MSM are all discussing, and then there is the details about the legal practice, the "scaring", the dismissal of justice and due process, the back-door deals with ISPs, and the estimates for what the "actual" damages would be in a fairl trial etc. which, hopefully, the SRA will deal with, but the media are ignoring.
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hmm, 29 Sep 2010 @ 2:10am

Various news sites are saying sky broadband now won't co-operate with ACS:LAW...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/11430299

I assume other providers will have to follow suit, because knowing that ACS:LAW is deliberately posting peoples names, credit card info etc (perhaps as a way to 'punish' them more?), they open themselves to liability by offering customer data.
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The eejit (profile), 29 Sep 2010 @ 2:47am

What are the odds that BSkyB were one of TWO ISPs co-operating with this? After all, BSkyB is a part of Newscorp.
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dave, 29 Sep 2010 @ 11:47am

nelson says: HA HA! :)
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