Cc instead of Bcc: Data mishap over abuse investigation in English church
In England, victims of church abuse are to receive compensation. Information on this was sent by email. There has now been a serious glitch.
(Image: Michael Traitov/Shutterstock.com)
A London law firm has used a mass email to expose almost 200 people who wanted to keep up to date with the investigation into cases of abuse in the English church, including alleged victims. Kennedy's law firm has admitted this and explained that all recipients were made visible to everyone else – so they were entered in the Cc field and not Bcc. The cause was a human error, but apart from the email addresses, no other data had been passed on. The company deeply regrets the "serious error" and accepts full responsibility.
Mixing up CC and BCC repeatedly causes problems
It happens time and again that email addresses are disclosed due to a mix-up between Cc (copy) and Bcc (blind copy). Thirteen years ago, for example, an incorrectly addressed email caused a flood of emails in the Bundestag. Later, a spam e-mail sent via a mailing list had similar consequences. Four years ago, a district office in Berlin emailed visitors to the "Friday Fuck 2-4-1" party at the world-famous Berghain nightclub, who were only supposed to be informed individually about coronavirus cases. A few weeks earlier, the British Ministry of Defense had put the lives of more than 250 Afghan translators at risk when all their addresses were visible in a mass email.
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The current case is now about dealing with cases of abuse in the Church of England. To this end, compensation was agreed in July, although the details have not yet been finalized. The church has asked anyone who would like to find out more to take part in a "simple notification system". This includes notifications by email, and this is exactly what has now gone badly wrong. The church has asserted that it has no control over the procedure and stated that the data breach should not have happened. According to the law firm responsible, it has informed all the relevant authorities and wants to help extensively with the investigation. Questions can be sent by email.
(mho)
