A call centre employee in Germany who took issue with his company’s data collection practices alerted the German authorities by handing over customer data on 17,000 addresses and bank accounts. In a related example, undercover privacy officials were able to easily obtain millions of items of personal data about German citizens on the internet.
In response, the government is planning to tighten data protection laws, including higher fines for data protection violations and more restrictions on the trading of personal and financial information among companies.
And to think this issue received some real attention with a single employee in a call centre. I guess you need to be careful who you call – or in the case of the German company – be careful who you hire.
Read more of the story in the Globe and Mail (Reuters).
