Business ISP blunders on BNP list

Google Maps mashup rides again

By John Oates • Get more from this author

Posted in Telecoms, 3rd December 2008 12:57 GMT

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Zen Internet has apologised for including a link in its latest newsletter to a website hosting a "find your nearest BNP member" search box.

The business ISP sent its members the newsletter yesterday with a link to a Google maps mashup which allowed you to search for the nearest BNP member to a specific postcode. Although not as bad as linking to the whole list, the blunder was a likely breach of data protection law.

The list of 11,000 BNP members was leaked two weeks ago. It almost brought down Wikileaks, one of several places hosting it.

At its peak Wikileaks was seeing 70 hits a second for the list. Party leader Nick Griffin blamed ex-staff for deliberately leaking the spreadsheet.

Dyfed-Powys Police are investigating the data breach, and Merseyside Police are investigating allegations that a serving officer is on the list - police are specifically banned from joining the organisation.

A Zen spokeswoman said it was sorry for the blunder and had removed the links from its website. ®

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