Cynthia O’Murchu and Elizabeth Rigby report: The UK’s tax office, British Telecom and British Gas have unwittingly provided sensitive personal data to private investigators using illegal methods, according to a report penned by the Serious Organised Crime Agency. Private investigators have been able to “blag” bank account information from British Gas, obtain details of individuals’…
Category: Breaches
Class action activist asks SCOTUS to review charity-only settlements
Alison Frankel reports that Ted Frank of the Center for Class Action and lawyers from Baker Hostetler filed a petition for a writ of certiorari at the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to review the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals’ approval of a $9.5 million settlement of class action allegations that Facebook’s now-dismantled “Beacon” program violated users’ privacy…
When ‘Smart Homes’ Get Hacked: I Haunted A Complete Stranger’s House Via The Internet
Kashmir Hill writes: “I can see all of the devices in your home and I think I can control them,” I said to Thomas Hatley, a complete stranger in Oregon who I had rudely awoken with an early phone call on a Thursday morning. He and his wife were still in bed. Expressing surprise, he…
Editor of French magazine that published topless photos of Duchess of Cambridge charged over breach of country’s strict privacy laws
Peter Allen reports: A high-profile female journalist has been placed under formal criminal investigation in connection with topless pictures taken of the Duchess of Cambridge, it emerged last night. Laurence Pieau, the editor of French Closer magazine, was formally charged in connection with an alleged breach of France’s strict privacy laws. She now faces the…