Taxi Driver Online

Leicester council makes 'significant data breach' over confidential taxi email

Council bosses have warned nearly 30 Leicester taxi firms not to open a spreadsheet carrying confidential information which it sent to them by mistake. Leicester City Council has warned cabbies if they disclose anything in file, containing passenger information, they will be breaching the Data Protection Act.

A councillor who was made aware of the email error now fears the council has a significant data breach which could lead to a safeguarding issue relating to the details of children. The council says 27 firms received the unsolicited email at 7.41am on Monday from the council Passenger and Transport Services Team (PATS).

The following day the PATS team sent out a second email saying: “This email had a large file (23Mb) attached to it called “Taxi Tender Live v 3” that contains passenger information and was sent in error to your company. “Please delete this email. “Please then delete the email from your “Deleted items” folder “Please do not try to open or read it.

“If you have opened/read it, then please do not disclose its contents or forward any information from it to any person or organisation. “To do so is a Section 55 offence under the Data Protection Act 1998. “Please reply to this address as soon as possible to confirm that you have received this email and acted upon it, and have not (and will not) open it or share/read its contents and have completed all the actions listed above.”

Conservative opposition councillor Ross Grant said: “I was alerted to this by one of the firms who received an email - which they didn’t ask for - followed by a second one threatening them if they share the information. “The council look like it is trying to cover up a potentially serious mistake it has made.

“We could be talking about a large - 23Mb is a big file - breach of data protection. “There are potential safeguarding issues if the council has just sent out passengers' information to firms. "The council has no way of knowing what will happen to that information now it has mistakenly shared it.

"While the scale of this breach is unusual I am learning it is not that unusual for the council to share personal details like this with lots of taxi firms. "It shows dangerously lax systems. "The public deserve an urgent explanation of how this happened and what is being done to stop it in the future." He has raised the matter with deputy city mayor councillor Piara Singh Clair.

A Leicester cab firm owner, who asked not to be named, said: "The PATS department holds a lot of sensitive information. It has information about vulnerable children, their addresses, addresses they cannot go to, doctors' address, medical conditions. "And they have sent a huge file out potentially containing that sensitive information. I know concerns with the way they handle their data has been raised before but fallen on deaf ears."

A Leicester City Council spokeswoman said: “Information was mistakenly shared by a staff member with 27 taxi firms we hold contracts with. “Information would normally be shared with taxi companies on a much more limited basis. "We take data protection and confidentiality very seriously and took immediate action, contacting all of the firms and asking them to delete the information.

“We reminded them that under the terms of their contract, they must comply with laws on data protection. "We are investigating and will report this incident to the Information Commissioner’s Office."

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IDFIMH

The following day the PATS team sent out a second email saying: “This email had a large file (23Mb) attached to it called “Taxi Tender Live v 3” that contains passenger information and was sent in error to your company. “Please delete this email. “Please then delete the email from your “Deleted items” folder “Please do not try to open or read it.



I think they've as much chance of winning the lottery as getting people to NOT indulge their curiosity

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Taxis Are Public Transport too

Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !

Especially when they said what was in it.

Maybe better off saying there was an iffy virus attached to it.

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IDFIMH

Leicester City Council again sends confidential passenger details to 28 taxi firms

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news ... ds-1680601

It is the second data breach from the department this year


A redacted PATS form

Leicester City Council has again mistakenly sent the private details of registered passengers to cab firms.

Officials sent the names and telephone numbers of two people to 28 taxi companies in May while trying to secure a contract to transport them.

It is the second data breach from the council’s Passenger and Transport Service (PATS) this year though the disclosure is far more restricted than an incident in January when it emailed a large file of confidential information to taxi companies and then threatened them with prosecution if they shared it further.

A taxi driver told the Mercury: “It’s the same mistake from the same council department.

“You’d hope they would have learned some lessons after the last time but it seems not.

“All you hear these days is how important it is to protect people’s data with the new GDPR rules and this doesn’t fill you with confidence.”

Tory city councillor Ross Grant said: ““This is very worrying.

“Despite other high profile failings it seems the safeguards needed to protect these passengers are not there. Someone has to tighten up the process and culture in this area, but so far no one is taking responsibility for it”.

A council spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that forms relating to two jobs recently put out to tender to our contracted taxi firms have mistakenly included the names and phone numbers of two passengers. This information would normally be included when the contract had been agreed.

"Although this should not have happened, we don’t consider it to have caused a risk to the passengers concerned.

"All of the taxi firms who received the information are subject to a confidentiality agreement with us and are used to handling such data."

Does not excuse the Council from dropping a major bol***ks,this only proves nothing is safe in Council hands.

How are the firms going to accurately quote on a job is they don't know the full ins and outs?

My view is that firms don't get enough information when dealing with special needs accounts.

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IDFIMH

Bit of a storm in a teacup this if you ask me

Leicester City Council mistakenly discloses personal details of vulnerable taxi passengers for the THIRD time this year

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news ... es-1954148

Council bosses have been accused of failing to take data breaches seriously

I agree, but you would have thought lessons were learnt following number one and two errors.

Amazed extra care isn't being taken.

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IDFIMH

Amazed the ICO hasn't got involved!

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Chris The Fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdlyi5mc ... re=related

They probably are but just have not made it public yet.