Jialat dot Com

GV leaks e-mail contacts of 7,000 patrons

Cinema chain blames software for glitch when it sent out its Movie Club newsletter. -ST

Thu, Jan 31, 2008
The Straits Times

A FEW hundred movie-goers suddenly found their contact list expanded over the weekend when an attachment containing e-mail addresses of more than 7,000 people was sent to their inboxes.

Cinema chain Golden Village (GV) had inadvertently leaked the information, sent along with its newsletter, to members of its Movie Club.

The leak did not include any other information, such as credit card details, but has raised concerns among privacy watchers that personal details could have been so cavalierly handled.

One of those affected, postgraduate student Tan Wei Hiong, 28, said: ‘Any spammer who got hold of that file would have had a field day.’

He found out about the problem only when he received an e-mail apology from GV on Tuesday.
The cinema chain said it was sending out an e-mail apology to each of the 7,000-plus affected customers.

They are among 143,000 who had signed up to be part of its Movie Club to receive discounts for tickets and other perks.

The cinema chain said it had taken steps to stop the attachment from circulating further once it was alerted to the problem.

Spokesman Angelika Quadt attributed the lapse to a software bug, adding that there would be more comprehensive tests done before sending out upcoming newsletters.

‘In future, GV will send out a test e-mail to internal staff to test it out first, to ensure it works and is not corrupted,’ she added.

The gaffe is not as serious as cases overseas where credit card information is lost, but experts say it trains the spotlight on how there are too few rules protecting the private data of consumers here.

In February 2006, the Government said it had set up an inter-ministerial committee to look into a data-protection regime here. There have been no updates so far.

In the meantime, some of the most stringent privacy rules still reside in the Telecom Competition Code, which governs how telecom operators can handle customer details such as calling patterns.

Since GV is not a telco, it does not face the same rules, say experts.

Lawyer Bryan Tan said even if consumers wanted to sue GV, they would have to show that the company had breached a contract by disclosing their details, and to show loss arising from the data leakage.

‘That is not an easy case,’ he noted.

Cathay ups ticket prices
SINGAPORE : Expect to pay up to S$10.50 on a weekend to watch blockbusters such as Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince or The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

Prices for tickets at all Cathay cineplexes will go up on Thursday, adding to the rash of recent price increases including taxi fares, electronic road pricing and cooking gas.

At a media conference on Tuesday, the cinema operator and film distributor said it was raising ticket prices for films by 50 cents or about 6 per cent due to “escalating prices in goods, services, labour, film rentals and the Goods and Services Tax”.

What’s more, an additional 50 cents will be tagged on for blockbusters such as Harry Potter and Iron Man.

“The rising costs we have seen over the recent years is something we cannot ignore,” said Mr Suhaimi Rafdi, the chief executive of Cathay Organisation Holdings, which has four cineplexes here.

The company had been “struggling to make ends meet” and had to jack up prices to “remain profitable”.

Without disclosing details, Mr Rafdi said that the company had made a loss in 2006 and was expecting a “small profit” for last year.

Mr Rafdi said that Cathay would categorise a movie as a blockbuster only if it has an “A-list cast and/or director, a big production budget of more than US$100 million (S$142 million), is a part of a successful franchise (like Spider-Man, Batman and Shrek)” and open on the same day in Singapore as in the United States.

Only around 20 out of the hundreds of films released here would qualify as a blockbuster this year, he said.

So, with Cathay raising its ticket prices, will other cinemas follow suit?

“It’s yet to be seen. They would probably want to see if there are any repercussions because this is a bold move on our part,” said Mr Rafdi.

When contacted by TODAY, Shaw Organisation, which operates seven cineplexes here, said it would not be following Cathay’s lead. “There has been some increase in our cinema operation costs. However, Shaw has no plan to raise its movie ticket prices at this point,” Shaw’s executive vice-president Mark Shaw told TODAY.

The other major operator, Golden Village, did not respond to TODAY’s queries by press time. Moviegoers TODAY spoke to were mixed on the ticket price hike.

“It wouldn’t affect the number of movies I watch. Fifty cents is not that much to me,” said editor Audrey Wong, 32, who goes to the cinema at least four times a month. “It’s still relatively cheaper than going to cinema in Europe or the US.”

Marketing manager Irwin Tham, 28, said the hike would not deter him from watching new releases. “watching a movie at the cinema is different from watching it on DVD.”

But film student Annette Heitmann, 21, said current ticket prices were already expensive and student movie rates did not soften the blow.

“It’s useless because the rates apply during the day, when students have classes.

The price hike will affect students’ decisions to visit the cinema as we have other alternatives”, such as watching the latest movies on the Internet. - /il