Is this just bad reporting or acurate reporting of bad management?

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8MJSR0O1.htm

MoneyGram says consumer info accessed

MINNEAPOLIS January 12, 2007, 1:03PM EST

MoneyGram International Inc., a global payment services provider, announced Friday that a company server with consumer information for about 79,000 bill payment customers was unlawfully accessed over the Internet last month.

The company said that it had not been able to determine if any information was actually stolen, [“We work hard to be this ignorant...” Bob] but the company was notifying customers that someone may have viewed their personal data.

The information involved did not include Social Security or driver's license numbers. It did include the names, addresses, phone numbers -- and in some cases -- the bank account numbers of MoneyGram customers.

... "It was an isolated incident involving only those consumers who made payments to a single biller, [How can they know that if they don't know what informations was accessed? Bob] and we are working with law enforcement in the investigation," said Vicki Keller, a MoneyGram vice president, in a prepared statement.

...so, there is no reason to protect Social Security numbers?

http://cairns.typepad.com/blog/2007/01/egovernment_and.html

January 11, 2007

E-Government and Privacy Rights

On Dec 29, the U.S. District court for hte Southern District of Ohio in Lambert v. Hartman, held that Individuals do not have a constitutionally protected privacy interest in their social security numbers. The plaintiff received a speeding ticket which prompted the police officer to record her name, address, birth date, driver's license number and social security number. The ticket was posted on the website of the local court clerk. This led to identity theft where a third-party opened a credit card and fraudlently purchased merchandise in the plaintiff's name. She filed suit against the court clerk. The court refused to recognize the financial interest of the plaintiff as rising to a level significant enough to deserve constitutional protection. "Plaintiff's alleged privacy interest in her [personal information] do[es] not implicate either a fundamental right or one implicit in the concept of ordered liberty," the court concluded. For extended quotes from the case, see here.

[ Lambert v. Hartmann, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 93926 (S.D. Ohio December 29, 2006): Bob]

Could this be a model for other industries also? (Imagine a swarm of fanatical geeks monitoring Micro Center and alerting a blog when DVD go on sale...)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070113/ap_on_hi_te/dining_wars

Blog wields power in restaurant world

By ADAM GOLDMAN, AP Business Writer Fri Jan 12, 8:50 PM ET

Ben Leventhal and Lockhart Steele are a pair of bloggers fighting a guerrilla war against the city's publicists. Nearly every day, the two provide restaurant information on their popular Web site, Eater.com., posting tidbits that publicists aren't ready to release and traditional journalists haven't managed to print.

Thanks to an army of hungry tipsters, Leventhal and Steele are irking restaurateurs, chefs and reporters alike with their timely scoops. They have broken stories about restaurant closings and the comings-and-goings of chefs, and their success has led to a new venture in Los Angeles.

There is also talk of stalking San Francisco's eateries and possibly delving into one or two other major cities. [Denver? Bob]

The ascendancy of Eater.com is yet another example of the transformation in how news is disseminated in a blog-driven world. With sites like Eater.com, Chowhound.com and Thestrongbuzz.com, no longer do restaurant-obsessed New Yorkers have to wait for a weekly food and dining section in a newspaper or magazine to get the lowdown.

... Leventhal and Steele's site attracts tens of thousands of readers a day and led the influential Food & Wine magazine to call Eater "required reading" and dub them "intrepid web masters" for shaking up the eating scene.