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Erroneous Tesco's Online Order Puts Relationship in Danger

How one little computer glitch can jeopardize your love life

By George Craciun, Security News Editor

22nd of July 2008, 14:14 GMT

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We all know that if we want to keep our browsing habits private, so that nobody can tell what sites we visit on a regular basis, we should clear the browser history. Also, if you want to keep your mails private, you should not give away your username and password. But what if you share a Tesco's online shopping account with your girlfriend and she discovers that you bought something you shouldn't have? It seems that this is exactly what happened when a South Yorkshire woman discovered prophylactics in the account's favorites list.

Lyn Newby says that she could not believe her eyes when she noticed that someone had bought prophylactics using that shopping account. Naturally, she assumed that her boyfriend Andy Allot had purchased those products, and went further on to assume that he was having an affair.

Of course, he had no idea about what was going on, so they did the only logical thing in this situation, which was to contact Tesco and get to the bottom of it all. It turns out that Andy was indeed innocent, and that it was all an error on the part of Tesco. Makes you wonder though how she would have reacted if the computer had been infected with malware and an adult pop-up had appeared on the screen.

"We are very sorry for any upset caused. Due to human error, the product was added to the customer's favorites item by mistake. This was completely unacceptable and staff retraining has been carried out to ensure that this situation cannot be repeated," said a Tesco spokesperson.

An official letter expressing Tesco's deepest regrets and signed by the corporation's Chief Executive, Sir Tearry Leahy, has been sent out, along with a £100 gift certificate.

"Things are fine now and we can laugh about it. But I just wonder how many other people had to deal with this mistake which could have cost me my four year long relationship," says Lyn Newby. Not to mention that it raises other, more serious security related questions about Tesco's activities.

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Tesco | data privileges | security
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