VA business and corporate clients email privacy breach

[ChrisFlyer]

Hi all,

Just wanted to draw everyone's attention to a privacy breach that occured yesterday at VA. It seems that the "Business News" email that is sent to those registered with the Accelerate and corporate travel programs at VA recently included the full contact list in the "To" field of the email, instead of the "BCC" field. As a result, the entire mailing list has essentially been made public due to a careless staff member at VA... While it seems that the email was sent to 500 people at a time (thus limiting the number of email addresses on the list that any one person can see), I still see it as a rather serious breach of privacy - considering that I can now see all of the contacts on their list with email addresses starting with C through H...

All that VA have done is send an email 5 minutes later saying "Virgin Australia Sales Team would like to recall the message, "BUSINESS NEWS: Virgin Australia announces further capacity increases to meet demand"." ... no apology or explanation, that was all the message contained (that and their standard email signature)... really not impressed VA!!

I feel sorry for those on the list who are well-known in society, and now have to deal with their personal addresses being compromised! If you are on this mailing list, I suggest you check the message to see how many people your contact details have been revealed to.

Waiting on a proper apology VA...

 

[haydensydney]

Does seem like a fairly significant stuff up. Maybe it was an office junior that didn't realise what they were doing?

A business email address only contains Name & Company, so it seems like the info released is fairly limited though - could be worse.

 

[mannej]

Looks like they can not blame Friday the 13th for this mailing list stuff up.

 

[Globetrotter]

Hi all,

Just wanted to draw everyone's attention to a privacy breach that occured yesterday at VA. It seems that the "Business News" email that is sent to those registered with the Accelerate and corporate travel programs at VA recently included the full contact list in the "To" field of the email, instead of the "BCC" field. As a result, the entire mailing list has essentially been made public due to a careless staff member at VA... While it seems that the email was sent to 500 people at a time (thus limiting the number of email addresses on the list that any one person can see), I still see it as a rather serious breach of privacy - considering that I can now see all of the contacts on their list with email addresses starting with C through H...

All that VA have done is send an email 5 minutes later saying "Virgin Australia Sales Team would like to recall the message, "BUSINESS NEWS: Virgin Australia announces further capacity increases to meet demand"." ... no apology or explanation, that was all the message contained (that and their standard email signature)... really not impressed VA!!

I feel sorry for those on the list who are well-known in society, and now have to deal with their personal addresses being compromised! If you are on this mailing list, I suggest you check the message to see how many people your contact details have been revealed to.

Waiting on a proper apology VA...

cough happens! Build a bridge....

Its hardly a 'privacy issue' if anything you might gain an email friend or two lol.

 

[Flashback]

cough happens! Build a bridge....

Its hardly a 'privacy issue' if anything you might gain an email friend or two lol.

It's a spammers delight.....

 

[mr_osborne]

I still remember when an office of a major real estate company here in NZ made the same mistake. They emailed out to all their customers whom they managed rentals for, promoting themselves in general. A few hours later, someone responded to everyone else with their bad experience with the company, something which put me off doing business with them. They had to email out later with an apology, claiming it was made up etc, but the damage was already done

 

[ChrisFlyer]

cough happens! Build a bridge....

Its hardly a 'privacy issue' if anything you might gain an email friend or two lol.

Perhaps you'd care to share your own contact information, and commence said construction when the spam and other unwanted emails commence...

 

[Homer]

I'm surprised that they are just BCC'ing their mailing list. I would have thought they'd be using email campaign management software to ensure this sort of thing isn't left up to the accuracy of an individual.

 

[markis10]

I am on the list and did not get an email, so it was contained quickly.

 

[Jama]

I imagine that most people included will be business people all in the same boat. I highly doubt any of those people will pass it on or use it. The odds are exceptionly low that a spammer is one of those members, you would have to be exceptionaly unlucky.

 

[Globetrotter]

Perhaps you'd care to share your own contact information, and commence said construction when the spam and other unwanted emails commence...

I don't have to, same thing happened to me when Tempur bedding sent a mass email out to their customers with everyone's email address in the 'to' field. They too sent an urgent apology straight after. As I said, it's only an email address, hardly anything personal to be concerned or worked up about.

 

[Jack Melon]

Seriously guys, get over it and build a bridge. Human error, no need to make a fuss about it.

 

[mannej]

Seriously guys, get over it and build a bridge. Human error, no need to make a fuss about it.

Sorry jack, but it is a bit more serious than that considering various legislation about privacy, and how things such as email addresses can be potentially sensitive information.

 

[Jack Melon]

Sorry jack, but it is a bit more serious than that considering various legislation about privacy, and how things such as email addresses can be potentially sensitive information.

Well its a risk you have to take, and they got it taken down very quickly so...

 

[ChrisFlyer]

they got it taken down very quickly so...

It wasn't that they took it down quickly - the just stopped distributing it to more people, which is great, but of course it doesn't excuse the breach to begin with... their mailing list still remains in my inbox... I'm going to laugh if someone at QF received the email containing a list of some of VA's most valuable clients...

And Jack, what you don't seem to understand is the seriousness of the breach - from even a quick glance through the list, one can see that it contains the *direct* email addresses for a number of parliamentarians (inc. those in, shall we say, 'senior' positions), defence officials and senior staff from other departments, CEOs, professional sportsmen/women, and those working in the film and television industry... not exactly a standard email list of businessmen!

Anyway, you're no doubt going to stick to your views, so all I'll say back is that I'm glad you're not in charge of privacy at AFF or the airlines!