Goldman Sachs Group Inc said a contractor emailed confidential client data to a stranger’s Gmail account by mistake, and the bank has asked a U.S. judge to order Google Inc to delete the email to avert a “needless and massive” breach of privacy.
The breach occurred on June 23 and included “highly confidential brokerage account information,” Goldman said in a complaint filed last Friday in a New York state court in Manhattan.
Goldman (GS.N) did not say how many clients were affected, and wants Google’s (GOOGL.O) help in tracking down who might have accessed the data. The Wall Street bank also said Google “appears willing to cooperate” if there is a court order.
Google, Goldman and Goldman’s law firm did not immediately respond on Wednesday to requests for comment.
According to Goldman, the outside contractor had been testing changes to the bank’s internal processes in connection with reporting requirements set forth by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
Goldman said the contractor meant to email her report, which contained the client data, to a “gs.com” account, but instead sent it to a similarly named, unrelated “gmail.com” account.
The bank said it has been unable to retrieve the report or get a response from the Gmail account owner. It said a member of Google’s “incident response team” reported on June 26 that the email cannot be deleted without a court order.
“Emergency relief is necessary to avoid the risk of inflicting a needless and massive privacy violation upon Goldman Sachs’ clients, and to avoid the risk of unnecessary reputational damage to Goldman Sachs,” the bank said.
“By contrast, Google faces little more than the minor inconvenience of intercepting a single email – an email that was indisputably sent in error,” it added.
Goldman is based in New York, and Google in Mountain View, California.
The case is Goldman, Sachs & Co v. Google Inc, New York State Supreme Court, New York County, No. 156295/2014.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/02/us-google-goldman-leak-idUSKBN0F729I20140702
Hmmm….,too late,the horse has left the barn.So many big stores and banks having id theft issues ect.,hell,even the irs seems to have computer issues!
“Goldman Sachs Group Inc said a contractor emailed confidential client data to a stranger’s Gmail account by mistake, and the bank has asked a U.S. judge to order Google Inc to delete the email to avert a “needless and massive” breach of privacy.”
WOW! That’s a massive fine and shouldn’t someone be doing major jail time for that and for trying to cover it up? Nope, not Goldman Sachs. They’re “too big too fail/jail”.
In addition to that, if Google did go ahead and delete it (which it appears they didn’t at this time), shouldn’t someone in Google be fined or put in jail for aiding and abetting a crime? Nope, not Google. They’re “too big too fail/jail”.
Translation: Goldman Sucks got caught with their pants down doing illegal trades, insider information exchanges, and in general doing business as usual. Only one problem with Google deleting the email. It’s already copied to the users hard drive. Once the guy realizes the gold mine he has on his email hard drive I’m sure he can conjure up a few ways to make some money. Know what I mean?
Side note:Happy Independence Day all!While great to have fireworks/barbecue/beer/get togethers ect. lets us firmly remember what we are celebrating,freedom and the beginning of a bloody fight for said freedom,history for good and bad has a way of repeating itself.
“Goldman Sachs Group Inc said a contractor emailed confidential client data to a stranger’s Gmail account by mistake,…”
Those thieving scumbags steal WAY too much ‘money’ to make ‘mistakes’.
What a load.