GDXData, a US state contractor that secretly shipped the personal data of state employees to an Indian firm for processing, faces the prospect of hefty fines and the loss of all its state contracts. According to experts at InfoWatch, the contractor should have informed its client that it would outsource the private data. GDXData could now lose all its business.
A scandal is brewing in the US after the private details of state employees were sent to a firm in India for processing without the approval of state authorities or workers. The incident only came to light after two former GDXData workers filed a secret “whistleblower” suit. One senator has already warned that terrorists could be among those who could take advantage of the personal data.
The problems stem from over 100,000 files containing private details that were indexed by GDXData in the People First personnel system. It was namely this information, by all accounts, that was handed over to an Indian company in the framework of an offshore project. However, two former workers at GDXData – Kristina Gilmore and Tara Pagano – went to court claiming that the personal data of state employees were indexed by a subcontractor from India.
GDXData could now face hefty fines and the loss of multimillion dollar state contracts. The incident has also been a blow to outsourcing projects in India and the rest of the world that involve the processing of people’s private data.
“The state contractor really should have notified the client that the employees’ private data would be sent to an overseas company. It appears that GDXData wanted not only to save on the work involved but also to hide the fact of outsourcing from the client. It could now lose all its state contracts,” believes Denis Zenkin, marketing director at InfoWatch.
Source: The News-Press
