[Dataloss] Chrysler Canadian Lease Customers data lost

[Henry Brown]

 From the Windstor Star http://tinyurl.com/6j4n2q

Chrysler Financial customer data lost
 
Dave Hall
Windsor Star

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

A Windsor man is upset there was a six-week delay in notifying Chrysler 
Financial's Canadian lease customers about a lost data tape containing 
their personal information.

Chris Jovanovic, who leases a car from Chrysler, said the company was 
notified by United Parcel Service about the lost tape on March 12, but a 
letter from Chrysler Financial dated March 27 didn't arrive in his 
mailbox until Monday.

"It's the time frame of notification that's got me upset, because if the 
tape did fall into the wrong hands, they've had six weeks to access the 
information and do something with it," said Jovanovic.

In a letter to customers dated March 27, Chrysler Financial general 
counsel Brian Chillman said that the company was notified by UPS on 
March 12 that a data tape sent by Chrysler Financial to a third-party 
credit reporting agency had been destroyed or lost in transit and never 
arrived at the agency.

"The data tape cannot be easily accessed and requires specialized 
software and equipment to read but it did contain some personal 
information that Chrysler Financial had obtained from you," said 
Chillman in his letter.

Despite it being not readily accessible, Chillman said "as a 
precautionary measure, we are alerting you to this recent incident so 
that you may be watchful of any possible misuse of your personal 
information by an unauthorized recipient."

This information includes names, addresses and social insurance numbers.

The lost information affects Chrysler Financial lease customers across 
Canada.

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