You can see the sharks circling...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080209140512844

(follow-up) UK: 14,000 victims of child benefit discs fiasco sign up to website that 'could win them £300'

Saturday, February 09 2008 @ 02:05 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

Families listed on the missing child benefit data discs are signing up to a website which could land the Government with a £7.5billion compensation bill.

... So far 14,000 people have registered with Alternative Dispute Resolution Services, a legal assistance firm based in Newcastle-upon Tyne, which is offering a £5.99 pack to help them pursue a claim against the Government. [Interesting business idea. Sell a “How to sue that bastards!” kit – all you need is the name and address of all the victims... Hey! I know who you can buy that from! Bob]

[...]Under data-protection rules, parents affected by the HMRC blunder could be entitled to payouts ranging from £50 to £300, plus extra on behalf of their children. But for the claims to go ahead, information commissioner Richard Thomas would have to find the HMRC guilty of breaching the Data Protection Act.

[...]Treasury sources said last night that if the mass claims went ahead, it would not bail out the Revenue, which would have to find the money itself.

For now, all claims are on hold until completion of an official inquiry by Kieran Poynter, the chairman of accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers. His report is due in June.

Source - Daily Mail

[From the article:

Director Philip Knight said: "A letter saying sorry for its mistake is all very well, but the Revenue has failed to mention that the loss of this personal information is a clear breach of the Data Protection Act.

"Under that law, anyone affected by the loss of personal data is entitled to claim compensation from those who were responsible for mishandling it." [No chance for a law like that in the US, is there? Bob]

... HMRC said last night that there was no evidence anyone had been defrauded as a result of the loss of the discs, so no money had been set aside for compensation.

A spokesman added: "We do not accept that individuals would have a valid claim for damages under the Data Protection Act."

For information on how to pursue a claim, visit www.thisis money.co.uk/disc-claim.

Second interesting report from New Zealand in as many days...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080209121039638

NZ: how big is identity theft?

Saturday, February 09 2008 @ 12:10 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Non-U.S. News

Just how big a problem identity theft is in New Zealand has been a barren debate so far. In the absence of official statistics and research, the debate has largely been opinions vs. extrapolation of overseas data.

That makes the report “The Experience of E-Crime, Findings from the New Zealand Crime and Safety Survey 2006” for the Ministry of Justice very welcome even though it seems to only cover a sub-set of the wider identity theft and identity fraud problems.

... Chapter 4 of the report presents the findings on identity theft in two categories:

• Of card users, 2.3% said that somebody had used a credit, bank or debit card or card number, without permission, to steal from them.

• 1.1% reported that someone had misused personal information about them to obtain new credit cards or loans, run up debts, open other accounts, or otherwise commit theft, fraud, or some other crime.

• Overall, 2.8% reported that one or the other of the two forms of identity theft they were asked about had occurred once or more and 0.4% of respondents reported both forms of identity theft.

Source - Identity and Privacy Blog

I include this list because it is a list. Only thing I recognize as being immediately useful to me is the free conference calling

http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/61565.html

10 Small Business Technologies That Just Plain Work

By Gene Marks Business Week Online 02/10/08 4:00 AM PT

Free Conference Calling

Well, not exactly free, but pretty close. Try freeconferencecall.com. Once you sign up on this Web site (no credit card needed) you get assigned a unique conference code and a regular phone number to call.