British Columbia’s Privacy Commissioner Slammed for Online Gambling Disaster

Submitted by Beth on Thu, 2010-07-22 at 19:01

British Columbia’s information and privacy commissioner is being criticized for her lackadaisical response to the leak of personal information from the province’s online gambling site. The British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) accidentally revealed a number of players’ credit card information in the short time the site was running. It was soon overloaded with players and shut down, but the damage had already been done.

Elizabeth Denham, the information and privacy commissioner in British Columbia, explained that launching an online gambling site is a difficult job and seemed too understanding about the glitch. Denham probably took it one step too far when she praised the BCLC’s quick action once they discovered the problem.

Others are saying, and rightfully so, that the leak should never have happened in the first place. The BCLC should have had the proper privacy and security measures in place before launching the online gambling site. Credit card fraud is a major problem in North America and affects billions of people around the world.

Many people think the BCLC should receive a stern punishment instead of just a slap on the wrist. There should be some sort of investigation into the issue and a solution should definitely be reached before the BCLC should even consider re-launching the site. There is still no word on how the affected customers will be dealt with.