Personal data of 65,000 FoxyBingo players sold for cash

[Mousey]

Jetset if you have already covered this, I apologize for repeating... I didn't see it...

Now... someone tell me again why spewing my personal and financial info out to each and every online gambling site where I have or will register is no big deal?

Personal data of 65,000 FoxyBingo players sold for cash

....The U.K. Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) reported on Thursday that a former gambling industry worker who unlawfully obtained and sold personal data relating to over 65,000 online bingo players has been found guilty of committing three offenses under section 55 of the Data Protection Act.

Marc Ben-Ezra, of Finchley, has been ordered to pay Cashcade Limited £1,700 ($2,311.83 USD) and to cover costs of £830.80 ($1,129.80 USD). He’s also been given a three-year conditional discharge.

Mr. Ben-Ezra first tried to sell the customer data in May by sending a series of emails to a number of contacts within the UK gaming industry. He emailed under the pseudonym Malcolm Edwards and included in his communications a sample data set relating to 400 Foxy Bingo customers
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[vinylweatherman]

The sentence is hardly a deterrent. It's basically a fine for what could potentially have netted him £100,000 or more. Had he approached the right companies, he would have found a buyer. Cashcade should also have been fined severely for lax security that allowed this employee to take the data in the first place.

The problem is that the cost of properly securing the data is far more than the cost of paying the fines (if any) when things go wrong. In theory each affected player could sue Cashcade for damages, but this is unlikely unless they have evidence that the leak caused them damage.