Consumerist: databases

Employees Play With Your Private Data And There Is Nothing You Can Do About It

Carey — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 11:19:20 EST

Why play solitaire when you work for the utility company and can look up the mayor's phone number? An Associated Press investigation reveals that casual snooping is widespread among employees who have access to large customer databases. According to one utility executive, it would be "difficult, if not impossible" to ferret out employees who use sensitive data for identity theft.

"People were looking at an incredible number of accounts," Joan Shafer, WE Energies' vice president of customer service, said during a sworn deposition last year. "Politicians, community leaders, board members, officers, family, friends. All over the place."
Her testimony came in a legal case involving an employee who was fired in 2006 for repeatedly accessing information about her ex-boyfriend and another friend. An arbitrator in November upheld the woman's firing. The AP reviewed testimony and documents made public as part of the case.

The misuse came to light in 2004 when an employee helped leak information to the media during a heated race for Milwaukee mayor that a candidate, acting Mayor Marvin Pratt, was often behind in paying his heating bills. Pratt lost to the current mayor, Tom Barrett.

Pratt said he's convinced the disclosure cost him votes and unfairly damaged his reputation. Pratt said he recently met with top company executives and was satisfied it has stopped the problem as much as possible. He said he has dropped earlier plans to explore a lawsuit.

Private sector employees aren't the only slackers to leaf through personal files. The IRS disciplined 219 wayward employees last year for snooping through our coveted 1040s. Companies don't like discussing their security measures, but WE Energies went on the record to assure everyone that they remind employees about privacy protection at least once every single year. We feel so much safer now.

Worker snooping on customer data common [AP]

The TSA Has Your Reading List

Carey — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 10:58:26 EDT

According to the Washington Post, the TSA is compiling extensive traveler records that can track passenger reading preferences. The Automated Targeting System is ostensibly designed to help officials ferret out terrorists; citizens who recently asked the government for records of their travel found that the databases also contains: "a description of a book on marijuana that one of them carried and small flashlights bearing the symbol of a marijuana leaf." Our government's long maw even reaches abroad to gather information on flights that don't brush against U.S. airspace.

Ann Harrison, the communications director for a technology firm in Silicon Valley who was among those who obtained their personal files and provided them to The Post, said she was taken aback to see that her dossier contained data on her race and on a European flight that did not begin or end in the United States or connect to a U.S.-bound flight.
"It was surprising that they were gathering so much information without my knowledge on my travel activities, and it was distressing to me that this information was being gathered in violation of the law," she said.

James P. Harrison, director of the Identity Project and Ann Harrison's brother, obtained government records that contained another sister's phone number in Tokyo as an emergency contact. "So my sister's phone number ends up being in a government database," he said. "This is a lot more than just saying who you are, your date of birth."

That explains how the TSA knows you're gay.

Collecting of Details on Travelers Documented [Washington Post]
(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

US Gov To Compile And Share Database Of Flier Personal Information

Meg Marco — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 20:22:32 EDT

According to the Washington Post, the United States and the European Union have agreed to compile and share a database of information on consumers who travel on aircrafts between the two continents.

The database will ostensibly be used to combat terrorism.

From the Washington Post (emphasis ours):

Under the agreement, airlines flying from Europe to the United States are required to provide data related to these matters to U.S. authorities if it exists in their reservation systems. The deal allows Washington to retain and use it only "where the life of a data subject or of others could be imperiled or seriously impaired," such as in a counterterrorism investigation.

According to the deal, the information that can be used in such exceptional circumstances includes "racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership" and data about an individual's health, traveling partners and sexual orientation.

How would an airline get this data? Currently they only store your credit card numbers, names, addresses, contact info, and itinerary. Under the new program, airlines could turn over any information they obtained from questioning you, or any special requests that you make, such as asking for a wheelchair or a king size bed at a hotel.

The article says that the reason they'd need to know if you requested a wheelchair is to determine if you were trying to hide a bomb in your fake leg cast. We're not sure why they need to know you want a king size bed. Is there a link between terrorism and people who date people who kick a lot at night?

Travelers Face Greater Use of Personal Data [Washington Post] (Thanks, Ian!)