Saturday, June 22, 2013

Slow Saturday Special: Dreyfuss's Discovery

It's a Gap in securing your privacy:

"Online order brings sensitive data instead; Mass. resident gets employees’ records, not a tie, from Gap" by Sudhin Thanawala |  Associated Press,  June 22, 2013

SAN FRANCISCO — With a little more than two weeks to go before their wedding, Emily Dreyfuss’ fiance ordered a tie and pocket square from Gap chain Banana Republic’s website to go with his Navy blue suit.

What the couple got in the mail instead Thursday would make an identity thief giddy: the confidential files of about 20 former employees, including Social Security numbers and W4 tax forms.

‘‘We totally laughed,’’ Dreyfuss, 29, said from her Cambridge, Mass. home

She had misgivings about the package as soon as it arrived. It was very heavy and did not say Banana Republic, but Gap Inc.

She and her fiance have been buying each other presents, and she thought it may have been a really heavy piece of clothing with catalogs, said Dreyfuss, the daughter of actor Richard Dreyfuss.

When they opened the package, inside were three folders sealed with tape and labeled ‘‘HR Administration.’’ They contained tax and Social Security information as well as handwritten resignation letters, doctors’ notes, and salary information — seemingly the employees’ entire record at the company. The employees were sales support associates and at least one made $9 an hour, Dreyfuss said.

The resignation letters were mostly from March and addressed formally to ‘‘Ms.’’ and then the person’s first name. They were polite and positive, expressing thanks for the chance to work for the company and learning so much. Some ended by saying, ‘‘God Bless.’’

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San Francisco-based Gap Inc. blamed the mix-up on a human mistake....

Doesn't their stuff come from Bangladesh

Maybe I'll get back to work their soon with a couple of shifts.

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