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Houseparty offers $1million for proof of smear campaign over hacking rumours

March 31, 2020

The must-have video chat app for bored brits on lockdown is offering a huge reward for information about alleged hacking. Rumours started circulating that the app had been targeted by cyber criminals. Complaints about the popular video-calling service being "hacked" spread like wildfire online. The app lets friends and family make video calls, play games and hang out in a virtual "house party". The rumours indicated that Houseparty was...

Business \ Legal \ Privacy

Princess Cruises confirm data breach

March 31, 2020

The cruise liner Princess Cruises, which confirmed that two of its ships had on-board outbreaks of Coronavirus, has now confirmed a data breach. It was revealed that it had detected unauthorised access to several email accounts over a four-month period between April and July 2019, some of which contained personal information on its employees, crew and guests. Carnival Cruise Line, Princess' parent company, stopped their global operations after...

Business \ GDPR \ Legal

Compensation claims over Virgin Media data breach

March 26, 2020

Victims of a data breach that exposed the details of more than 900,000 people have been contacting their solicitors. Newcastle-based solicitors Ben Hoare Bell LLP are just one of the firms investigating the breach, which was allegedly down to “human error” rather than a cyber-attack. The database at the centre of the breach, contained phone numbers, home and email addresses and was accessed "on at least one occasion" by an unknown...

GDPR \ Legal

Sensitive data dumped in council skip outside offices

February 3, 2020

Payroll, council tax arrears and bank details were amongst a pile of sensitive information left exposed in an open skip. The A4 lever arch folder belonging to Gloucester City Council, contained 350 pages of data, within which there were 37 pieces of paper with at least 30 individuals’ private data. The information was dated 2013 and was discarded in the skip alongside office equipment after workers cleared out the former office of the city...

Business \ GDPR \ Legal

Dixons Carphone fined £500,000 after millions of customers’ personal data was lost

January 14, 2020

Point-of-sale computers in Currys PC World and Dixons Travel shops suffered a cyber-attack affecting 14million customers. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), imposed the maximum £500,000 fine to DSG Retail Limited (DSG) under the previous data protection legislation (Data Protection Act 1998), which was in force when the incident occurred. However, they warned that the fine would have been much higher under the GDPR laws which carry...

Business \ GDPR \ Legal \ Privacy

ICO issues first UK fine under GDPR to a London pharmacy for £275k

January 7, 2020

Doorstep Dispensaree, based in Edgware, north London has been fined a whopping £275,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for “cavalier” disposal of records about vulnerable care home residents. The pharmacy, which supplies medicines to individuals and care homes, stored approximately 500,000 documents containing care home patients’ names, addresses, dates of birth, NHS numbers, medical information and prescriptions in its...

GDPR \ Legal \ Privacy

Building contractors fired after losing floor plans for spy HQ

December 31, 2019

Building contractors Balfour Beatty tasked with refurbishing the MI6 building in London have been fired after losing the floor plans for the spy headquarters. The plans were said to have contained details of the building's layout and security protocol According to The Sun, the plans went missing a few weeks ago, having been produced by the company to help with the restoration works at the Vauxhall Cross site. Allegedly more than 100 papers,...

GDPR \ Legal \ Privacy

Fears that leaked New Year’s Honours addresses could be sold on dark web

December 30, 2019

The home and work addresses of hundreds of celebrities, politicians and emergency service workers have been posted online in a huge Cabinet Office blunder. The government has since apologised "to all those affected" after it accidentally published addresses of more than 1,000 New Year Honour recipients online.1 The file - which included details of senior police officers and politicians - was uploaded to an official website on Friday evening...

Business \ Legal \ Privacy

The business model of Google and Facebook threatens human rights, it’s been claimed.

November 25, 2019

A new report by Amnesty International claims that Facebook and Google’s surveillance poses an unprecedented danger to human rights. The group has now called for the core business model of both companies to be dramatically overhauled. Due to the mass aggregation of personal data, they claim this is violating people’s right to privacy and restricts freedom of expression. The rise of big data, and big data analytics, creating a "golden age...

GDPR \ Legal \ Privacy

What does the General Election mean for GDPR?

November 19, 2019

The Information Commissioner has sent out letters to the main political parties, reminding them that they must comply with data protection laws ahead of the forthcoming election on December 12. There’s no doubt that the ICO is very strict about the use of data in political campaigning. Letter The letter read: “A dedicated election hub for parties and campaigns has also been created on the ICO website, along with an updated ‘Be Data...

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