[Dataloss] UK: Police personal data found on discarded floppy

[lyger]

On Wed, 26 Dec 2007, Dan O'Donnell wrote:

": " <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7160490.stm>
": " 
": "   Police data details found at dump
": " A senior police officer has apologised after confidential details of 
": " staff were found on a dump in Devon.
": " 
": " The details, on a floppy disk, included names, addresses, telephone 
": " numbers and ranks of employees of Devon and Cornwall Police.
": " 
": " The disk was in an obsolete computer that had been used by the force 
": " and had been sent for recycling.

While losing the personal information of police officers is certainly a 
concern due to the nature of their jobs, I've noticed other recent reports 
of general "data loss" involving not much more than names, addresses, and 
sometimes phone numbers.  Should this generally be considered "personal 
information" if such data can usually be found in a phone book or 
Google (for most people anyway)?  Just a thought and something we consider 
when including (or not including) breach data on attrition's data loss web 
page and database...