The Canadian Privacy Law Blog: Developments in privacy law and writings of a Canadian privacy lawyer, containing information related to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (aka PIPEDA) and other Canadian and international laws.

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The author of this blog, David T.S. Fraser, is a Canadian privacy lawyer who practices with the firm of McInnes Cooper. He is the author of the Physicians' Privacy Manual. He has a national and international practice advising corporations and individuals on matters related to Canadian privacy laws.

For full contact information and a brief bio, please see David's profile.

Please note that I am only able to provide legal advice to clients. I am not able to provide free legal advice. Any unsolicited information sent to David Fraser cannot be considered to be solicitor-client privileged.

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The views expressed herein are solely the author's and should not be attributed to his employer or clients. Any postings on legal issues are provided as a public service, and do not constitute solicitation or provision of legal advice. The author makes no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained herein or linked to. Nothing herein should be used as a substitute for the advice of competent counsel.

This web site is presented for informational purposes only. These materials do not constitute legal advice and do not create a solicitor-client relationship between you and David T.S. Fraser. If you are seeking specific advice related to Canadian privacy law or PIPEDA, contact the author, David T.S. Fraser.

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Incident: Security vendor's contest exposes client list 

The irony tag is appropriate for this posting.

According to Australian IT, Trend Micro, a security vendor, committed a significant security faux pas in the way it implemented a contest, exposing customers' personal information:

Australian IT - Offer exposes Trend Micro list (Chris Jenkins, MAY 30, 2005):

"SECURITY vendor Trend Micro has had an embarrassing privacy breach exposed, with subscribers to a promotional offer able to easily discover the addresses of other recipients.

The offer, which has now expired, was hosted by email and web services group Clever Bytes. It invited subscribers to update details for a security update email from Trend Micro, offering a digital camera and cinema tickets as prizes.

Once the user clicked on 'Confirm and Update your Details', they were taken to a new screen containing blank fields that allow them to update their information.

However, the email address field was automatically filled in, or 'pre-populated'.

To discover the email addresses of other subscribers, users simply had to change the URL, modifying the 'userID' number...."

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