Delta Index releases confidential data

Online financial markets spread betting service Delta Index inadvertently distributed confidential client information to around 50 of its subscribers yesterday.

While it was e-mailing individual monthly statements to clients, Delta sent approximately 50 different individual client statements to 50 of its subscribers.

The error meant that clients were sent confidential information such as account balances, trading histories, e-mail addresses and other details relating to other customers.

Delta chief executive Dermot O'Donoghue confirmed the incident yesterday and blamed a recent software upgrade for the problem.

Mr O'Donoghue said the problem had been identified within three to four minutes of the company beginning to send out its monthly statements, and was stopped immediately.

"We stopped the whole process immediately it became apparent," he said. The company has since removed the software upgrade that caused the problem in the first place.

Mr O'Donoghue added that the company then began to contact all of those affected to explain the problem and apologise. By last night, it had managed to contact around three-quarters of the clients involved. Overall, around 5 per cent of Delta's 1,000 clients were affected by the incident.

One of the affected customers told The Irish Times yesterday he was not happy with the company's response when he contacted it to complain. "What's happened is that my information was e-mailed to everyone else and I received everyone else's," he said.

"When I contacted them, they seemed wholly uninterested and just said that they were working on it at the moment. It was almost like I was an annoyance. I was astonished that they were treating the matter so lightly."

Mr O'Donoghue said that the company took the matter very seriously.

A spokesman for the Data Protection Commissioner said that it was open to anyone who felt that their data protection rights had been breached to complain to that office, which would investigate the matter and bring a prosecution where appropriate.

The maximum penalty for breach of data protection rules is €100,000, but the office does not prosecute every breach that it investigates. In many cases, it simply orders the organisation involved to change procedures or technology to ensure the problem does not crop up again.

Individuals who believe they have suffered in some way as a result of the breach of their data protection rights can sue the relevant organisation in the courts. However, no such case has ever been fully tried in the Republic, as they are generally settled before litigation.

Delta Index is a spread betting service. This allows clients to bet on movements in share prices and indices and is seen by some as an alternative to conventional investments.

Britain regulates spread betting as a financial service, and it is the responsibility of its financial services' authority. However, the Republic's financial regulator does not have responsibility for this activity.

Delta holds a bookmaker's licence and is thus answerable to Customs and Excise.