Hello,

The Google Team

That said, I could do without having to have my photo taken and stored by BA just so I can fly to Edinburgh. Needless to say I could not see any overt explanation of what is being done with the data and given the deployment at the front of a queue there is little chance for a passenger to ask about it.

Too little too late if you ask me, that horse has long since bolted….

The much bigger issue, I suspect, will be this – the UK Information Commissioners investigation into practicies within Barclays call centres. There must be a lot of call centre managers panicking at present – Barclays are unlikely to be the only ones whose practices merit investigation.

LONDON – The Financial Services Authority has said that firms must improve the standards of cold calling when selling general insurance over the telephone to ensure they are treating their customers fairly.

The FSA has reviewed a sample of 43 firms to look at their sales process, systems and controls and whether they were treating customers fairly when selling services by telephone. The review found that the general standard of sales was acceptable, although disclosure of significant exclusions and limitations could be improved.

However, the FSA found that the standard of sales was poor when insurance policies such as personal accident insurance health cash plans and accident and sickness insurance were sold through cold calling.

The main weaknesses were found in training programmes, supervision of staff and a lack of management information other than for sales and call volumes.

Vernon Everitt, director of retail themes at the FSA, said: “The quality of cold calling in general insurance was disappointing — consumers were pressurised and the benefits of the product were sometimes exaggerated.

“We expect to see significant improvements when consumers are cold called. Swift action has been taken to deliver these improvements at the firms we visited and we are following up with other firms which use cold calling as part of their sales strategy.”

Such action included: voluntary suspension of sales until deficiencies have been rectified; reviews of rejected claims to ensure that they had not been rejected where the customer may have been led to believe that they were properly covered and; agreement to assess future claims on the basis of what customers were actually told at the point of sale in cases where the sales person did not follow the sales script.

Bulldog was under the ownership of Cable & Wireless at the time but has since been taken over by Pipex. Cable & Wireless has pledged to investigate the security breach.

James Brown, Managing Director of Bulldog Internet, told The Guardian newspaper: “Our understanding is that, following an external enquiry by Cable & Wireless, it has become apparent that at some point in December 2005, Cable & Wireless had some of their customer contact details illegally obtained by a third party. This resulted in a small number of their customers receiving unsolicited calls.”

While it hasn’t been made clear exactly what details were “illegally obtained”, although one of the affected consumers has apparently contacted The Guardian since and told them that the details included credit card and bank account details.

Despite this, a Cable & Wireless spokesperson insisted that none of the 100,000 customers had experienced their cards or accounts being accessed or used illegally.

“We are already taking appropriate legal action against the third parties that we believe may be responsible for this unauthorised use of our customer data,” she added.

TK Maxx owner hit by card breach

Stores in the US, UK, Canada, Ireland and Puerto Rico are affected
Hackers have stolen information from at least 45.7 million payment cards used by customers of US retailer TJX, which owns TJ Maxx, and UK outlet TKMaxx.
In a statement to US watchdogs the firm said it did not know the full extent of the theft and its effect on customers.

TJX added that the security breach may also have involved TK Maxx customers in the UK and Ireland.

But the company did add that at least three-quarters of the affected cards had expired or data had been masked.

The company also told the BBC that 100 files were moved from its UK computer system in 2003, and two files were later stolen.

Question marks

However, a spokesperson admitted that the firm may never know what was in those files.

“We don’t know what was in those files – the technology the hacker used prevents TJX from knowing, and also the fact that TJX system routinely deletes files,” the spokesperson added.

The data was accessed on TJX’s systems in Watford, Hertfordshire, and Massachusetts over a 16-month period from July 2005 and covers transactions made by credit and debit card dating as far back as December 2002.

That’s fine – I assume there will be an accompanying service through which the individual can use their own identity for free – or get a cut of the action?