James Galvin

Today, Monster.com have taken one step closer to their goal: becoming responsible for all the spam on the internet. They spammed just about every internet user in Cork (except me, hehehe). Tom Raftery has the details: Monster steals email addresses and spams it@cork membership.

It was not too long ago – 2 months? – that these guys were fighting the most miserable PR battle, as they tried to convince the world that they do care about the integrity of your confidential information (your personal details, your email address). 1.6 million+ people got their names tacked on to some Ukranian guy’s spamlist thanks to Monster’s inadequate security policy. These 1.6 million people are now being contacted by Nigerians peddling phony job opportunities (remember those 419 scams in the Examiner jobs section?) Millions of people trusted Monster.com with their information – not only their home phone number and email address, but practically their entire life story. Their work experience, their strengths, their education history, even their hobbies. Monster make huge profits from selling this information, and in return you get an inbox full of V|agR4 spam.

I’m trying to put myself in Monster.com’s shoes – how would I react to something like this in the media. I can really only see one route: I would change my attitude towards data protection – I would make it my top priority. I would audit my operations, make policy changes wherever necessary and I would launch a campaign to tell the world that we will do our best to protect your privacy. I really cannot understand how Monster’s business development manager in Ireland cannot see this. Not only does he blatantly spam a lot of very vocal people – he thinks he is justified in doing so!

Tom makes an interesting point:

The Irish Data protection Commissioner takes a very dim view of this and has the power to levy fines of up to €3,000 per address spammed (so potentially €570,000 in this case).

It is so rare that anyone is held accountable for breaches of the data protection act. This is such a perfect example with no excuse. Michele reckons this kind of thing can destroy a company’s reputation. Well, a company like Monster doesn’t have much left to destroy. I’d just like to see how the Irish Data Protection Commissioner responds.

Update: Michele has more information here. Digg it.