Last month (May 2008…yes, it is June already!) Lending Tree got slapped with a civil suit alleging their personnel allowed mortgage lenders access to customer’s personally identifiable information (PII) and other confidential information.
The suit charges that Lending Tree did not have appropriate or adequate information safeguards in place, resulting in the employees using names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, income information, and assorted other personal information, to market their own mortgage loans to the LendingTree customers.
The class-action lawsuit, (this is from a subscription site) represents all Lending Tree customers who submitted loan request forms to the company between Jan. 1 2006 and May 1, 2008.
From the case file…
Posts Tagged ‘privacy breach’
Internal Threat Example: Lending Tree Privacy Breach And Civil Suit
Sunday, June 1st, 2008Who Had The Brilliant Idea To Outsource U.S. Passports?
Thursday, March 27th, 2008Okay, after the recent passport files snooping debacle I found today’s news story, “Outsourcing passports ‘profound liability’” very ironic and concerning.
Not only for the reported huge waste of taxpayers’ dollars, but also for the security risks…
The Benefits of a Privacy Ombudsman
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008The folks from Cutter just notified me that an excerpt from a recent article I wrote, “Learning from a Privacy Ombudsman: A Case Study to Establish a Healthcare Services Ombudsman,” will soon be featured in the “Quote of the Day” section of the Cutter Web site.
Here’s the excerpt…
Yet Another Stolen Laptop With Clear Text Patient PII
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008Yet another in a long procession of laptop thefs, “Stolen laptop contains personal info of 2,500 patients“.
Here are the first few paragraphs…
The Emperors’ New Clothes Lack Privacy
Friday, March 21st, 2008Over the past few weeks I’ve talked to several privacy officers and information security officers about how things are going with their initiatives, funding, and so on. Many from the financial industry, but otherwise a wide range of businesses from small to large. There has been a common theme during these discussions…
Information Security and Privacy Areas MUST Collaborate For Their Initiatives To Be Effective
Friday, March 14th, 2008For the past several years I have written often, and given much training, to demonstrate and emphasize the need for information security and privacy areas to collaborate in their efforts. There are just too many topic overlaps between the two areas to NOT work together cooperatively.
Effectively addressing and coordinating Privacy and Information Security initiatives has moved to the top of the list for companies maintaining customer and employee information. However, there are often gaps in communication and collaboration between Privacy and Information Security activities.
What Business Leaders Need to Know About Privacy Breach Notifications
Thursday, March 13th, 2008The third article in my March e-journal issue of “IT Compliance in Realtime” is “What Business Leaders Need to Know About Privacy Breach Notifications.”
Here it is, unformatted:
The “Reasonable Belief” of a Privacy Breach
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008The second article in my March e-journal issue of “IT Compliance in Realtime” is “The “Reasonable Belief” of a Privacy Breach.”
Here it is, unformatted:
The “Reasonable Belief” of a Privacy Breach
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008The second article in my March e-journal issue of “IT Compliance in Realtime” is “The “Reasonable Belief” of a Privacy Breach.”
Here it is, unformatted:
