Surprised this had only just come out. With the company being run on a Microsoft Access database up until a couple of months ago i'm surprised only 1 person has been found to have sold the customer information.

I can state that this database did not contain financial information..... different story for the database that managed the website though.....

This reminds me of a certain fable involving a barn, a door and a free-spirited horse. The only difference is that on this occasion the horse seems to have taken the door with it.

I'm concerned that many of the countries in which our financial data are now being moved to don't have the same protections as the US' GLBA (I'm sure the UK and EU have similar measures).

About 3 years ago, an Indian worker at a data processing call center stole personal information on about 20,000 people and sold it to a data miner. The only charge they could come up with was theft of company property, since he used one of their CD's.

Simon, not only is the door missing, but I don't see much of the barn.

Sounds like she got away with the farm!

As an ex-bulldog client (feb this year), how do I find out if I am "at risk" ? I paid by direct debit, but a couple of transactions were by credit/debit cards.

The database that she got away with would have been the MS Access one (unless she had access to the SQL Server one controlling the website - unlikely). This didn't contain any financial information as the website sent the details directly to a payment broker (secpay). Although, for a period of time, financial information was harvested on the website DB. This was deleted just before Ofcom started their audit as it was unencrypted and just sat on the web DB behind a firewall! Scary! Guess the management (yes the management knew) thought Ofcom would frown on it!

For those that have been contacted by call centres but weren't/aren't a Bulldog customer, would have been because the check box to opt out of telemarketing was ignored. This generated a large DB of potential customers for the broadband sector. This was used by the offshore Bulldog sales agents. Wouldn't have surprised me if this was also sold without the knowledge of the company...

''I'm concerned that many of the countries in which our financial data are now being moved to don't have the same protections as the US' GLBA (I'm sure the UK and EU have similar measures).''

This is the problem with outsourced centers we dont have the same financial protection therefore we are stuffed if this type of thing happens and the wrong person gets a hold of our data...

''About 3 years ago, an Indian worker at a data processing call center stole personal information on about 20,000 people and sold it to a data miner. The only charge they could come up with was theft of company property, since he used one of their CD's.''

There isnt much deterrent if this is all that happened, I think the only way we can object to companies looking at the cheap option of cheap labour in a country where laws are so different is to put our foot down as consumers and say enough is enough, If a company chooses to do this we vote with our feet and go somewhere our information will be safe, and we have the laws that protect such information which deters people stealing it and selling it on!!!!

''I'm concerned that many of the countries in which our financial data are now being moved to don't have the same protections as the US' GLBA"

The funnyest thing ive herd all day! Data protection in the US!