Union data blunder puts students in fear
Wednesday, October 29, 2008, 09:30
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Students say they fear being stalked after a university body revealed private details of more than 3,000 individuals.
The mistake, by the students' union at the University of Leicester, meant 3,396 people who had signed up to a discount card received an e-mailed reply containing everybody else's information.
This included mobile phone numbers, personal e-mail addresses, dates of birth and course details.
The union has since contacted the police for advice to give to concerned students. It has also issued an apology.
William Lavender, 19, an English undergraduate, said: "I'm not happy at all. My information was disclosed when they are liable for keeping it safe.
"Who knows what could happen? It could have a widespread effect. We're going to be susceptible to identity fraud and, if nothing else, a lot of unwanted e-mail spam.
"I'm possibly going to ask for some kind of compensation. I don't think an apology is enough for this sort of mistake."
One 23-year-old student, who did not want to be named, said many people would fear that they could become victims of stalking.
He said: "To be honest, I'm feeling slightly lucky that I didn't put my mobile number on when I registered and only provided my university e-mail address.
"It's a goldmine for anyone wanting to stalk someone whose given their mobile or e-mail address they use for Facebook or MSN Messenger, or even find out where people are going to be from the lecture timetables, because it provides them with everyone's courses and year they started.
"The most annoying thing is that they hadn't tried to contact everyone affected to let them know about this mistake, or apologised for it."
Kumaran Ambalavanar, acting general manager of the students' union, which is a separate body from the university, said: "It was done by a member of my team, so ultimately I am responsible.
"What we've done since is to work with the police and university departments to help minimise the risk.
"The police asked us to tell students to be vigilant of any unusual correspondence or ID fraud.
"This is something that shouldn't have happened but mistakes do happen.
"We'll have to look at our data handling procedures to make sure it doesn't happen again."作者: sss 时间: 2008-10-29 17:55