Why No Apology For Release of Names By City Hall
Wednesday, September 19, 2012 @ 3:45 AM
In keeping in line with the present thinking of City Hall, there was no apology from the Mayor for the so called glitch that resulted in the names, addresses and the phone numbers of those that called in to complain about potholes this past year being accessible on the net.
The City went about its business, shut down the page in question, and seemed to take the position that,”Oh well it’s just the public “
Over 1,000 people in the city had their names, e-mail and phone numbers posted for everyone to see.
Now you might say well these are available anywhere, believe me they are not.
For those that want to hide behind an E-mail address that does not reflect their name it is very difficult to attach the name to the E-mail. Attaching an E-mail address to a phone number is doubly difficult if the person wants it that way.
Regardless however, the question is should the City apologize for allowing this transgression to happen? There is no doubt that had the Privacy Commissioner received a complaint on the matter, that department would act and in all likelihood will rule in favour of those 1,000 people.
But in spite of this possible problem, the powers that be at city hall are hoping that if they sit still and say nothing that the masses will forget about the problem.
It’s a case of never admitting you’re wrong, and City Hall’s recent appearance before the Court suggests just that.
I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.
Comments
Maybe we have not heard anything because most of the management staff in the computer department are down at Harrison hot springs this week
An apology and a full explanation of how this happened is in order, in my opinion! The City can’t claim that its computer equipment and programs are not up to date. I recall various news reports from City Hall in the past which stated that the equipment is fully brought up to date (replaced and renewed) every three years. I understand there is a full time employee looking after it, the equipment and the programming.
With the kind of money regu;ar;y spent on it one may expect it to be 100% bullet proof.
All this info is out there already. Unless some are worried about a killer that’s tracking pothole complainers .
RUEZ, please tell me where my name, address, phone number, and e-mail address are all conveniently located on-line where anyone can access them, so that I can address this matter as well. What’s with these folks who assume that everyone’s personal info is freely available to anyone else when it simply is not?
Interesting to know if any councillors or the mayor were on the list reporting pot holes. Surely they must of seen a few on their travels thoughout the city.
I think the bigger commetn is that there are 1000 people in Prince George who took the time to complain to the city about the awful roads. I was one of them.
Her highness report potholes….don’t be silly….the mayor has her route to city hall repaved.
It’s there Krusty right beside Homer.
Try googling your own name and see what comes up. You might be surprised at what is there. I can drive down any street an pick a house number and find out who lives there with a simple search engine. It will even tell me who the neighbors are and allow me to send a gift. Look up your own phone number and you can find out all your neighbors names too. If you use any of the social sites like Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn then it’s not hard to find a email address. Sure the city screwed up but you aren’t secure with your own information as you think.
NoWay hit the nail on the head. If you’re going to complain about the mistake the city made you better unplug yourself from the internet.
NoWay and RUEZ, your comments experiment shows your naivety in this situation. There are many people who go to great pains to keep their personal ID limited.
Sure, Telus will list a land line, but many land lines are unlisted by the owners request, not to mention cell phone numbers, which are not listed at all. Home addresses are associated with a listed landline, but not cell phones or anyone without a landline.
Many people create multiple email addresses to deal with privacy issues… ie and email address they submit to sources that they feel may not be secure, and an email address they keep rpivate for their own use.
What is a doctor/lawyer/rcmp officer was own that list? Their personal contact info is now public, and these are just some of teh many professionals who take great pains to keep these thinsg private.
As someone who has managed this kind of personal information before, and had breaches of security, I can tell you this is a big deal. at the very least, lists that like are downloaded by spam companies, and all people within it start receive telemarketing calls and spam emails.
It’s clear that you have no idea what you are talking about.
“… you better unplug yourself from the internet.”
Either that or get the city to admit that it made a mistake and get some assurance that the mistake has been corrected and that the best known safeguards are now in place.
Too bad only 1000 people complained about the potholes!
I can’t believe that nobody mentioned the ”yellow book” leak that’s been occurring for years. I get a book filled with names, phone numbers and addresses every single year. I bet theyve managed to get their hands in at least half of the families in PG. it’s not like they’re even discrete about it. I used to be able to find them in little boots all over the city. This is a invasion of OUR privacy and it needs to be put to an end.
NoWay: I have googled my own name. It doesn’t come up. Perhaps the 1000 people should file a complaint and then the city might not be so smug about it.
I’m one of those professionals that likes to keep things private. My phone is under another name, I take part in none of the social media sites, and if you google my nmae, you get tons of hits, but none of them contains my personal info.
No Way, you can drive down any street, pick a house number and come up with info, but the odds of you randomly picking MY house are astronomical, which is more pertinent to the point that I and others are making.
I don’t know how some of you sleep at night knowing your car has a license plate that is in full view of anyone passing by?
By the way, did O250 ever find the person that hacked into their system?
RUEZ, how exactly would you get a name associated with a license plate? Only the RCMP and ICBC have access to those databases. Try contacting them for someone’s personal info and see how far you get.
Again, you don’t seem to know what you are talking about.
Careful oldcurse, someones probably tracking your I.P. every time you post.
I too have a professional position in this community that makes me keep my info private. I have a cell phone, which is harder to find than a landline, my name is not associated with the place I live, and I am very careful about what I post online. I have made numerous complaints about sidewalk potholes and street light problems over the past few years, most of which are ignored by the city so I have to contact them over and over. I don’t want to be prevented from contacting them by fear that they will misuse my personal information, but I also really don’t want that information public.
RUEZ
With the use of proxy servers I can appear to be posting from almost anywhere in the world. Mac addresses can be spoofed making it hard to track the computer posting. It is also fairly easy to get past wifi protection including WEP, WPA and WPA2, so I could be posting this via your IP from a car outside your house:)
The problem here is not the pothole list, the city also has servers with sensitive data including financial info on homeowners and personal info on their employees. If a simple word in a search box gets into one file what assurance do we have that other information is safely secured.
The city should appologize for the breach of privacy.
On the issue of proxy servers. They are becoming more common in Canada. With the new copyright regulations the Harper government is imposing on the internet more and more of the international content is being blocked in Canada… more so than even countries like China.
I have to use a proxy server to watch my favorite TV series Burn Notice out of the United States… its a burn lol. Every week it seems more and more web sites are not accessible from Canada.
Eagle one, it’s quite pathetic of you to blame harper for blocked web sites that offer programming . Those sights get blocked because of licensing agreements , just the same as netflix Canada and netflix usa have extreme differences in programming . Shame.
Please enlighten me RUEZ, what does my IP address tell you?
“…only the RCMP and ICBC have access to those databases.”
Not so! PayParking lot companies routinely get name and address information from ICBC! In other words they apparently have access with the assistance and approval of ICBC. Have you been watching the news about what is going on in Vancouver? Never heard the name Diamond Parking?
Yes PG, diamond Parking can get access to personal info from people who parked on their site by the license plate – but they do not hold a database and have to put in a formal request to ICBC for that info. ICBC holds the database and they better be sure that it is secure from hackers and the random public too
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