Something strange going on

[wini]

Maureen,
I did just as you thought we would and checked SP, both timeline and Previously viewed and Previously searched.
After a reasonable look I couldn't come up with anything untoward.
Will be interested to see what SP have to say.
You know of course it will be THE COMPUTERS fault.

wini

[momat]

This is the reply from SP.
I am not convinced.

For a search to have appeared in your account, another person would need to
have your username and password and also they would need to know which case
this was registered in as that is another identifying issue.

Without that they would not receive access to the account - there is no
other way to enter any existing account. Even staff here cannot enter fully
a customers account as the passwords for each account are encrypted
therefore cannot be viewed.

[DavidWW]

Hello all,
I think this is something we should all be addressing as it affects our Privacy Issues that we are told are so sensitive.
Maybe the Admin on Talking Scot could look at the issue PLEASE.

At least I am not the only one, so hands up all the others who have had this happen .
I can see you all going to your P C and search your files on S P now.

Cheers.

It's not so much a task for the AdminGroup here on TS, as for the ScotlandsPeople User Group.

I and two other TSAG members (2 current, 1 former) are members of the SPUG, and, depending on the response that your contact form produces will certainly follow it up,. if necessary as an agenda item at the next SPUG meeting which can't be too far away.

Please keep us posted on whatever the response turns out to be.

David

Edited later to remove any ambiguity involved that the 3 referred to are members present and past of the TSAG. DavidWW

[sporran]

Hello Maureen,


I know nothing about the specifics of how the SP site runs, but I can offer some comments based on 30 years of working with computers, most of them in IT departments.

(By the way, David, I reckon that 5 UG members post here and on other forums).

The records of your searches are held in a database, but not all in one place (which would be a contiguous file). As you, or any other user, adds to your searches, that new data is stored in the database in a new area and there will be a pointer from previous records to the next one. This is like following a story in a newspaper, where it has "Continued on page 5, column 2".

These records are physically stored on a hard disk, which is an aluminium platter coated with a magnetic layer. Although manufacturing processes are fantastically good, there will be places where the magnetic layer is not as even as others. In addition, the controllers that work out where the heads are relative to the disk can have errors (missed seeks). Generally, the disk will sort out these problems by itself, or rather by the firmware built in to the disk, and mark places on the disk as bad sectors and move the data elsewhere.

However, errors will creep in, and anyone who has run error-checking routines will get reports that some files were damaged and could not be recovered. For PC users, these appear in the C:\ directory as FILE0001.CHK, FILE0002.CHK, etc. By the way, defragmenting a drive gathers together all the spread-out parts of files, and freshly writes them as a contiguous file in a new area, assuming that the space is available. At least 10% of a disk should be kept free for such purposes.

Therefore, my assumption is that some corruption of this sort has happened in the SP database, and there really are no privacy concerns to worry about. Errors do happen with databases, but they are far far fewer than would happen with an equivalent process run by humans, as well as being vastly cheaper. By all means, let SP know your concerns, but the issues should be corrected when the databse is next rebuilt, because fresh pointers to records are created during that.

I do not know how often SP rebuild their databases, but new servers have made the situation quicker than in the past, and is now a couple of hours. Again, generally speaking, when any site has scheduled maintenance, it is for purposes such as database re-indexing.

My first encounter of such things was a long time ago when I was trying to load test data for fuel trials on coaches. Instead, I saw part of a personnel file for a very senior Shell man. But that is the only time that I have seen something that I was not trying to see.

Just to reassure you again. I do not believe that anyone has hacked or wilfully amended your records. A problem has occurred somewhere in the IT system. These sort of things happen rarely but regularly. Like traffic accidents, there are quite a lot overall but rare at a personal level.


Regards,

John

[momat]

Hi John,
So basically what you are saying is that this is possible with out someone having access to my data and that this is like delivering mail to the Wrong Address !
I.E. Nina's search came to me by some sort of fluke.


David ,
I doubt that I will get any further response from SP unless others who have experienced similar activity make an issue of it and they then have to take action

[sporran]

Hello Maureen,


yes. At some time you may have received some junk (postal) mail to your address but for a different person - another example of database records being slightly out of alignment. It happens with people addressing envelopes as well, when not lining up columns correctly. Genuine blunders happen without evil intent.

The UG can still take this up with SP, now or as a general topic at the next meeting in May or June (provisionally). Further examples would indeed help David to present a case.


Regards,

John

[DavidWW]

David ,
I doubt that I will get any further response from SP unless others who have experienced similar activity make an issue of it and they then have to take action

Part of the calculation of the income that ScotlandonLine derive from their contract with GROS to operate ScotlandsPeople is based on level of achievement, or not, - in relation to a range of KPIs, - Key Performance Indicators, , - one of which relates to service to users in relation to contact forms submitted..........

In other words you are a due at very least an acknowledgement, and some comments on your problem regardless of how many others have or haven't reported the same problem!

David

[momat]

Oh well,

Will wait and see what the outcome will be.
Cheers.