It appears that the authority sent out the message to 4,000
local companies, inviting their comments on certain issues.
According to ZDNet, some businesses received the same message at
least 20 times.
The Cambridgeshire Police Authority apparently characterised the
e-mail as a "new method of consultation" that failed due to a
"major technical error, or corruption of the original files", and
apologised for "any inconvenience" caused to the recipients.
The authority reportedly said it "did not believe" it breached
data protection legislation, because the names of the recipients
were taken from a public list.
In a separate incident, Tower Records has apologised to millions
of UK and US consumers whose personal data were exposed on its web
site due to a "programming error." The error apparently allowed
internet users to view a database with customer orders dating from
1996 to last week, including customers' home and e-mail addresses,
phone numbers and details of what products were purchased.
