Keepmoat survey data breach?

Misslayed

I've received an 'unusual' email today - my scamometer pinged, but none of the usual red flags appear. I did complete the survey, but the email infers that 500 people will receive £100, which sounds expensive! 

Anyone else get one? Any thoughts?

Dear Survey Participant,

 

Social Media Survey – data security incident

 

We would like to thank you for participating on Keepmoat’s online Social Media Survey that we launched on 28 July 2024.

 

The purpose of this email is to let you know about an incident that has impacted the Survey.

 

What happened?

 

Due to a technical misconfiguration in the Survey form, this unfortunately meant that the data submitted by you as a Survey participant was accessible by the other Survey participants that accessed the Survey via an email link.  None of the participants who participated in the Survey by social media had the ability to access the data. 

 

Importantly, the Survey was launched at 4am on Sunday 28 July and was only live for a limited time before we found out about the issue that afternoon. At that point we immediately terminated further access to it.

 

While there were approximately 500 potential participants who accessed the survey via an email link and so could in principle have accessed the survey data present at that time, we are only aware of one person (being the participant who quickly brought the misconfiguration to our attention) who actually accessed the Survey results which contained your data. We also know that participants spent only a few minutes on the Survey page.

 

What data was potentially accessible?

As you may recall you responded to some mandatory and optional Survey questions which included:

·       Your personal email address

·       Your gender, marital status, type of house, number of children (expressed as a range)

·       Information about your social media habits and preferences

 

What steps have we taken?

Upon the incident being brought to our attention, we took immediate action to:

 

·      Terminate further access to the Survey via email;

·      ensure that the Survey itself was no longer accessible online;

·      secure all data submitted by those who had participated in the Survey; and

·      remove social media posts from our Facebook and Instagram, where we were promoting the Survey. 

 

These steps were completed within a few hours of becoming aware of the incident.

 

We are working to ensure that this error does not happen again so we can continue to securely engage with our customers online.

 

We have complied with our data protection obligations under UKGDPR and have notified the Information Commissioner’s Office of the incident accordingly. We are also notifying you because you participated in the Survey and had a chance to win a prize. 

 

Our ask of you

If for any reason you did inadvertently access the Survey data, we are sure you will appreciate it should not have been shared in that way. We ask that you make sure you have deleted any download or copy you may have made and that you don’t share anyone’s personal data.

Our apologies and your award

We have also taken the decision to withdraw the Survey at this time. However, in recognition of the time participants took to respond to the Survey and enter the draw, we have decided to award the prize (an M&S voucher in the amount of £100) to each participant, including you.  Details of how to access this award will be shared with you over the course of next week, via the email address you provided to the Survey.

 

We would like to say sorry to you that this has happened and for any concern it might cause you. Keepmoat takes the privacy and security of the personal data we hold very seriously and we are confident that this is an isolated incident. We assure you that we are continuing to review our processes to ensure the data we hold remains secure.

 

 

Kind Regards,

 

Simone Saunders

 

 

 

​​​​

Simone Saunders

Compliance Manager

m. 07831165316 |  keepmoat.com

KJ1986

I was just about to post about this as I've got the email too.

I posted the survey here on Sunday and it had disappeared not long after so I'm sure the email is legit.

I guess I should apologise to anyone who entered from here. I'm not sure how many people from here actually entered but I didn't notice any issues or I obviously I wouldn't have shared it. 

Misslayed

No need to apologise - it looks like we may all win! I'm not sure I posted any seriously sensitive data. 

KJ1986

Misslayed said:

No need to apologise - it looks like we may all win! 

Well that was my thinking too. I;m just not sure if everyone will be thinking the same way if their data has been seen or shared etc.

Misslayed

I feel I feel like I've shared my name and email address with so many companies to enter their competitions, one more can't make any difference - can it? The rest was just 'in a range'. 

KJ1986

Well that is true. and the voucher will be a nice bonus.

libra10

I also entered, and received the email.

We will have to see what happens.

annibell79

Anyone heard anything more about this? The email said they'd follow up over the course of the next week. It's been a week....

KJ1986

annibell79 said:

Anyone heard anything more about this? The email said they'd follow up over the course of the next week. It's been a week....

Nothing as yet. Hoping they'll be in touch again soon.

libra10

My giftcard has just arrived.

Hope others receive theirs soon

Misslayed

Just received mine too