Glitches of the Week from Newsbytes

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Daily News Glitches of the Week By Leonard Lee, Newsbytes April 02, 2000

This is a weekly column from Newsbytes featuring the latest in the weird, bizarre, and unfortunate when it comes to technology.

Lottery Prize Awarded Two Years Late

On March 21, 1998, Joyce Tatsch was a $1 million winner in Pennsylvania's Million-Dollar Spin lottery. But the spin of the lottery wheel which produced Tatsch's winning numbers was deemed to be invalid because of technical difficulties. Now, two years later, Pennsylvania Secretary of Revenue Robert A. Judge Sr., has determined that the money will be awarded to Tatsch, with interest. On the night of the spin, Tatsch was the original winner, but because of technical errors, the spin was not recorded for broadcast. Officials deemed the first spin invalid and another was carried out, which awarded the prize to V.M. Matthew. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, the matter first came under review last week during an audit being conducted by the Auditor General's Office.

"Whether or not there is a legal requirement that we make this second $1 million payment, I believe it is the right thing to do," said Judge. "It was not Ms. Tatsch's fault that there were technical problems." Tatsch was unaware she had been the winner of the initial spin, and once informed of her good fortune, said she was shocked.

Employee Information Misdirected

An email containing personal information including salaries and social security numbers of some employees of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway was mistakenly sent to the wrong person. BNSF's official company Web site operates under the address http://www.bnsf.com , but a similar address, http://www.bnsf.org , is operated by William Purdy, a former employee of the railway.

"An outside contractor was sending these messages out, accidentally addressing them '.org' rather than '.com,'" said Steve Forsberg, General Director of Public Affairs for BNSF. "Typically, with the Internet, when the exact person can't be found to deliver a message to, it will be sent to the Webmaster by default, which was Mr. Purdy in this case." The matter was complicated, because Purdy wanted to publish the information, claiming that because it was sent to him, it was public domain. BNSF went to court to block any publication of the material. "We are likening it to a package that was delivered to the wrong address by an express delivery service. Once the recipient opens the package and realizes it isn't intended for them, they should give it back," said Forsberg. "That doesn't give him the right to take that misdirected package and put it up on public display."

In an injunction hearing it was recently decided that Purdy could publish the salaries, but not the social security numbers or the identities of the employees.

Software Error Leaks Email Addresses

Subscribers of Dot Com Deals, a weekly email announcement by Trans World Airlines, were able to see email addresses of other subscribers due to a software error. According to Julia Bishop, TWA spokesperson, on March 20, the message regarding discounted airfares, accidentally contained a visible field that showed email addresses of other subscribers.

"The software error allowed people to see other email addresses similar to their own," said Bishop. "For example, people with addresses starting with 'b' could see other addresses starting with that letter."

While the Dot Com Deals email newsletter has been in place for several years, the March 20 emails were the first sent using new list-management software. Bishop said she didn't know how many of the email addresses were released, but the error has been corrected. TWA sent an apology to all subscribers and created a mailbox where concerned customers could send questions and comments.

http://currents.net/newstoday/00/04/02/news6.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), April 03, 2000


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