LATEST
TEXAS
DISPOSAL SETTLEMENT NEARLY $1 MILLION
Just a few
weeks ago, the Texas Attorney General’s
Office announced what was then the
highest settlement – $600,000 – for
violating the state’s destruction
requirement. However, as of today, a new
record high fine has been established.
According to
a report by Logan Carver appearing on
the website of the Avalanche Journal
today (July 17th),
a national medical company will pay the
state of Texas $990,000 for improperly
disposing of personal information -
virtually all of which will go into a
fund created to further enforce the
disposal law.
The Attorney
General's Office sued Select Physical
Therapy Texas Limited Partnership and
parent company Select Medical Corp in
January of this year after authorities
found more than 4,000 pieces of patient
information, including names, addresses,
treatment details and bank account and
Social Security numbers, in a Dumpster
behind the medical company's branch in
Levelland,
TX.
Reportedly, the branch had closed in
October.
The article
also states that the settlement requires
the company to implement an amended
information security program to protect
and safeguard personal information. The
settlement terms also require the
company to train employees within 120
days on how to safeguard and dispose of
records containing personal information.
Click here to read the
entire report
TEXAS AG
HANGS TOUGH ANNOUNCING NEW CHARGES AND
THE HIGHEST SETTLEMENT ON RECORD
Within the
span of 5 days last month, in separate
incidents, the office of the Texas
Attorney General 1) issued new charges
for violating the state’s information
destruction requirement and 2) announced
a settlement with EZCORP in the amount
of $600,000.00 related to the similar
charges filed against it last year.
According to
an article by Chris Rizo published on
the website of Legal Newsline on June
23rd, the Texas Attorney General’s
Office also reached an agreement with a
pawn and payday lending company,
Austin-based EZCORP Inc., to pay
$600,000.00 to the state. According to
the article, the settlement stems from
charges issued against the company when
state investigators previously found
evidence that hundreds of customers'
records were improperly discarded by the
company, violating the state’s
destruction requirement.
To our
knowledge this is the largest publicly
announced settlement related to casual
disposal ever. Previously announced
settlements (in
Texas)
were for $315,000 (CVS Pharmacies), and
$220,000 (Check & Go).
Just 5 days
prior, in an unrelated case, the Texas
AG’s office charged Houston-based
Petroleum Wholesale, L.P., which
operates Sunmart Travel Centers &
Convenience Stores in 10 states, for
casually discarded information that is
required to be destroyed prior to
disposal.
In this case,
according to the report in the Pasadena,
TX-based The Citizen on June 19th,
Investigators with the Office of the
Attorney General (OAG) discovered that
the company improperly discarded
hundreds of customer records in a
publicly accessible trash container
outside its former headquarters.
Click here to read the
complete article on the Texas AG’s
$600,000.00 settlement with EZCORP.
Click here to read the
article in The Citizen regarding the
charges issued against Petroleum
Wholesale, L.P.
Friday,
June 27, 2008
LOCAL
SHREDDING COMPANY ON THE MOVE
Local
Business Woman Plans to Accelerate
Growth of Business Start Up
|
By
Rhonda Coker
Contributing Writer
|
Shelly Slagle,
Southlake resident and founder of A
Shred 2 Pieces, announced today that she
plans to buy out the minority share
holders of the Irving/Southlake based
document destruction company. Since the
April 1st start, “business has been
great,” says Slagle. “But to grow the
company quickly and to take advantage of
the woman owned business status single
ownership is needed. Hopefully all the
details will be wrapped up in August.”
“The goal is
to grow more quickly in the municipal,
county, and state government sector. By
being a woman owned business this will
enhance the opportunity in this market
segment,” Slagle said. “The business
outlook continues to be positive and
expanding into other geographic markets
is in the plans. It’s all about speed
and how quick you can react to
opportunities.”
The Southlake
mother of two says, “Offering superior
safe secure service while maintaining
efficient operations is the key for
continued success while keeping the
company’s earth-friendly, green
philosophy.”
The company
presently services the entire DFW
Metroplex and plans to expand service
into other markets in early 2009.
For more
information, see
www.ashred-2pieces.com.
INSURANCE
RECORDS DISCOVERED IN
TEXAS
DUMPSTER
As reported
by Rebecca Lopez in a posting to the
website of Dallas, Texas-based
WFAA-Channel 8 on June 13th,
hundreds of files with people's names,
Social Security numbers and policy
numbers were found in a
Richardson,
Texas
dumpster.
The files
were dumped there by a company called
Texas Insurance Claims Services which
processes consumer claims. According to
the report, the company says it
sometimes uses commercial shredding
services but decided not to do so this
time.
Given
Attorney General Greg Abbott’s
aggressive defense of the state’s
destruction law, it will not be
surprising to be reading about a six
figure settlement associated with Texas
Insurance Claims Services in a few
months.
Click here to read the
entire report and to access a video on
the incident.
Important
papers found on top of DISD recycling
bin
05:18 PM CDT on Wednesday, April 16,
2008
By BRAD HAWKINS / WFAA-TV
DALLAS -- Hexter Elementary in East
Dallas is an exemplary school in
academics, extra curricular programs --
and the campus was out-ahead in
implementing what's now a district-wide
recycling movement.
It's a different kind of recycling-- of
very personal information-- that worries
one man after what he found right there
on the campus.
Perched atop a full recycling bin,
behind Hexter Elementary School in East
Dallas was an ID thief's potential
windfall.
Click here to read full story.
DISCARDED DAYCARE RECORDS EXPOSE
PERSONAL INFORMATION
A report on January
15th by KRGV - News Channel 5 of
Weslaco,TX, claims that a woman, looking
for boxes for an upcoming move, found
personal information in a
McAllen, Texas
dumpster.
In the files were
social security numbers, bank account
information, and medical records from
Casa Del Sol daycare center.
According to the
report, the owner of the business
claimed that all the information was
locked in an office they are currently
leasing to a third party (hmmm).
Click here to read the entire
report.
TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL FILES LAWSUIT
AGAINST MEDICAL COMPANY
According to
several reports by Lubbock, Texas-based
KCDB-Channel 11 on January 10th and in
the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal on
January 11th, Attorney General Greg
Abbott is wasting no time resuming the
aggressive prosecution of organizations
casually disregarding the state’s
information destruction
requirement. After bringing a half dozen
such prosecutions forward in 2007
against some of the countries most
recognized retailers, he is now bringing
charges against a Pennsylvania-based
healthcare provider, Select Medical, for
casually discarding thousands of files
of personal information last October in
Levelland, Texas.
Last October,
Levelland police found thousands of
records containing patient's social
security numbers, medical history, and
banking information in and around a
dumpster. As a result, according
to the reports, Select Medical now faces
millions of dollars in fines if the
charges stick.
The Texas Attorney
General is seeking an injunction against
Select Medical to prevent them from ever
disclosing personal information like
this again, as well as seeking penalties
of up to $50,000 per violation. The
company is accused of violating the
Texas Identity Theft Protection Act
passed in 2005. The Attorney General is
also seeking up to $500 for each record
with personal information.
Click here to read the entire report
from KCDB.
Click here to read the article from
the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
DALLAS
STUDENTS RECORDS FOUND IN RECYCLING BIN
An article by Steve
Pickett on the website of Dallas’
CBS-affiliate Channel 11 on November
2nd, reports that personal information
of some North Texas
students, including home addresses,
social security numbers, and phone
numbers, were recently found in
recycling bins behind a local church.
Officials with the
Dallas
Independent School District
promise to determine how this breach of
personal information happened.
Click here to see the original
report.
TEXAS
UTILITIES CHANGE
DISPOSAL PRACTICES
As reported in the
Herald Zeitung of
New Braunfels,
Texas, the
officials of the local utilities have
changed their practice of discarding
personal information in recycling bins.
Click here to read the entire
article.
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION ISSUES
FIRST DISPOSAL RULE FINE
The FTC has
announced that it has fined a mortgage
company that left loan documents with
consumers’ sensitive personal and
financial information in and around an
unsecured dumpster. The FTC’s complaint
alleges that Northbrook,
Illinois-based American United Mortgage
Company violated the Disposal,
Safeguards, and Privacy rules by failing
to properly dispose of credit reports or
information taken from credit reports,
failing to develop or implement
reasonable safeguards to protect
customer information, and not providing
customers with privacy notices.
The FTC alleges
that the company failed to implement
reasonable policies and procedures
requiring the proper disposal of
consumers’ personal information,
including consumer reports; to take
reasonable actions in disposing of such
information; and to identify reasonably
foreseeable internal and external risks
to consumer information.
The company also
allegedly failed to develop, implement,
or maintain a comprehensive written
information security program.
Click here to read the complete FTC
release.
PRIVATE DATA FOUND IN
TEXAS
DUMPSTER
On November 1st,
San Antonio,
Texas TV station, KENS 5, posted a report of
personal information found in the
dumpster of a local loan office.
According to the
report, the loan company quickly
responded by removing the records once
they were informed of the situation. The
article also reports that the firm did
not know exactly how the records ended
up there, but speculated that it was due
to employee error.
The article did not
mention the fact that
Texas
is one of 14 states where disposing of
personal information in this manner is a
crime. Of all the states with such laws,
Texas
has been the most aggressive in
enforcement.
Click here to read the entire
article.
TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL CONTINUES
CRUSADE FOR PROPER DESTRUCTION
An article by
reporter Rob Luke, writing for
legalbusinessnews.com, highlights
the continuing efforts of the Lone Star
State’s top law officer to enforce the
states’ 2 year old requirement for all
organizations to destroy discarded
information.
The article comes
on the heels of the announcement of
legal action against a San Antonio-based
company for allegedly failing to protect
sensitive customer information by
discarding it in the trash. The charges
carry a maximum fine of $50,000 per
violation.
The suit is the fifth in less than two
months involving stores tossing their
customers' records in the trash instead
of safely destroying them. In each case,
the dumpster-diving evidence-gatherers
have recovered key documents from
stores’ alleyway bins.
Click
here to read the entire article.
TEXAS
CHARGES CVS FOR
VIOLATING SHRED LAW
According to the
Insurance Journal on April 19, 2007, the Texas Attorney
General Greg Abbott has charged CVS
Pharmacy for allegedly violating the
state’s information destruction
requirement.
A CVS store in
Liberty, Texas
exposed hundreds of its customers to
identity theft by allegedly disposing of
customer records in a dumpster behind
the store. Those documents contained
hundreds of active debit and credit card
account numbers, along with expiration
dates, reports the article.
Investigators are still trying to
determine whether any of the exposed
data has been used illegally.
This news comes
immediately on the heels of the same
charges being brought by the Texas AG
against RadioShack for casually
discarding personal records.
Click
here to read the entire article.
TEXAS
MAN DUMPED RECORDS
In March, Lubbock
News Channel 11 reported that thousands
of records containing personal
information from people in and around
Lubbock
remained in a
Lubbock
County
field. According to the report, the
records contained people's names, social
security numbers, even copies of their
drivers’ licenses and birth
certificates.
The investigation
has now also unearthed who dumped the
records. The man says he sold a
McDonald's franchise seven years ago,
and these records had been sitting in a
warehouse ever since. Then, two weeks
ago, the man says he could legally
destroy the records, and had planned to
burn them on this piece of property, but
exactly who owns this piece of land is
in question. And the records were never
destroyed.
A
Lubbock
County
farmer contacted the Lubbock County
Sheriff's office, when he discovered
this pile of boxes on his land.
Click
here to read the entire web posting
of the report
TEXAS
SUES RADIOSHACK FOR DISPOSAL
VIOLATION
MSNBC’s Abby Dunn
reports that the State of
Texas
has charged RadioShack with violating
the state’s shredding
requirement, after the company's store
in Portland,
Texas, exposed customers’ personal
information to would-be thieves.
The Attorney
General's office sued RadioShack on
Monday, claiming it violated the 2005
Texas Identity Theft Act, which requires
businesses to shred
or erase documents with sensitive
information, like driver’s license and
social security numbers. If they are
found guilty, RadioShack could be fined
up to $50,000.
Abbott's office
also charged the company with violations
under Chapter 35 of the Business and
Commerce Code, which requires businesses
to develop retention and disposal
procedures for their clients' personal
information.
The law provides
for civil penalties of up to $500 for
each abandoned record.
To read the full
article, click
here.
