When Pigs Fly!
Thu Jun 15, 2006 at 01:37:33 AM PDT
"We regret any inconvenience this matter may have caused you and remain committed to protecting the security of any personal information we receive from you."
When Pigs Fly!
Some of you may have heard about Hummingbird, Ltd. losing 1.3 million records, names and SS #'s from the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation (TG).
The Round Rock, TX-based lender said files on 10 percent of its borrowers were downloaded to an unidentified piece of equipment belonging to an employee of Hummingbird, a third-party contractor Texas Guaranteed had hired to provide a document management system.
The files had been securely encrypted for transmission, but once the unidentified employee decrypted the files and downloaded them onto the device, he or she lost it.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/...
I got a letter today from these assholes and I'm pissed. When I first heard about this, I had a feeling I'd be getting a letter. It's what the letter said that has me fuming.
Follow me down and I'll explain........
Dear Customer:
As reported on May 30, 2006, Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation (TG), a guarantor of your student loans, was contacted on Friday, May 26, 2006, by Hummingbird Ltd., a company TG contacted with to implement a records of information management system, and informed that a Hummingbird employee lost a piece of equipment containing names and Social Security numbers of certain borrowers whose student loans had been guaranteed by TG. The Hummingbird employee had access to this information to index files for the records information management system. TG has identified your information as likely to have been included on the lost equipment.
First off, got to love outsourcing don't you. Why should they care about privacy and other crap if it saves a buck.
Second, they have identified my information as likely to have been included on the lost equipment. Either my information was on there are it wasn't, which is it?
Based on the best information available to TG at this, we do not believe that your information has been accessed by someone without authority to access it, or that it has been used to commit identity theft. Out of an abundance of caution, however, TG recommends your take steps outlined below, and call TG if you have any questions.
1. You want me to trust your best information? Do you think I'm stupid?
2. You don't think my information will be used to commit identity theft? But you encourage me to contact the Credit Bureau to place a 90 day Security Alert on my file.
You lost my info, why don't you contact them for me?
3. You think I should review all my creditors statements to be sure they haven't been altered. You tell me a delay in receiving a statement could be a clue that someone has stolen my info?
The goddamn US Postal service can't deliver my mail. They gave my address to 30 other people when they gave us all new 911 addresses. After 5+ years I'm still getting other people's mail and not my own because the Post Office can't seem to fix this mess. I've called the US Post offices in Killeen, Waco and San Antonio and they don't care. I offered to write a letter to each of these people and explain they need to contact the Post Office for their correct address and hand deliver them to every box and they tell me that I will be fined if I do that. Screw the US Postal Service.
4. You encourage me to review consumer assistance materials published by Federal Trade Commission relating to privacy and identity theft issues?
What privacy do I have if some asshole has lost my records and no one is sure where they are? Did I give you permission to give my info to a 3rd party? I don't remember signing a piece of paper telling you that was ok.
You think I should visit the FTC website for help. Do you seriously think I believe or trust anything to do with Bush & Company? They are already collecting data on our phone calls. I might as well just send them a letter outlining my entire life, it would be quicker and save them a hell of a lot of money spying on people.
And another thing. Thank you Rick Perry and the asshole Republicans you rode in with. You got your job thanks to helping get Bush elected President. It wasn't enough that he tried to bankrupt Texas, he had to do it to the whole country. You are all the most incompetent, slimy bunch of people on this earth. All these records disappearing lately is beginning to smell funny. I'm beginning to wonder if they weren't lost on purpose and then sold to the highest bidder.
I want my State and my Federal government back. I want the grownups in charge again. I want all the people hired by Bush and his friends fired.
I just came across this information by following a link in the the above link:
The news that nearly 200,000 Hewlett-Packard (HP) employees were at risk of identity theft after a laptop containing their data was stolen from a Fidelity Investments office is the latest example of a new trend in data breaches.
* In Dec. 2005, Ford Motor Company lost a laptop containing information on 70,000 of its workers.
* January 2006 saw the disappearance of a laptop containing data on 215,000 Ameriprise customers and advisors from a car.
* The Providence Health Care hospital system revealed in Feb. 2006 that a laptop containing data on thousands of its patients had been stolen in Dec. 2005.
* Also in February, an auditor from financial services firm Deloitte & Touche left a laptop containing data on employees of the McAfee software security company in an airplane seat pocket.
* And just this month, two laptops containing data on Verizon employees wandered off from one of the company's office buildings.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/...
Not counting the 26.5 million records lost from the laptop stolen with VA records on it, 500,000 people are at risk because laptops with their personal data have been stolen in recent months. Can someone explain to me why people are allowed to take home laptops from work with sensitive data on them?
How many times have I seen "I can't believe they've done that" written here? Every time something new leaks out about what the Republicans are doing, people start shaking their heads again. Then it's forgotten about, only to go on to a new one. It's only going to get worse people. We have got to start making our voices heard or we are all doomed. The Republicans will sell us all down the river. If they don't, Bush will just sign a signing statement to do it for them.
We have to start demanding that people be held accountable, or what is the point?
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