ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 15, 1996 TAG: 9606170083
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
The discovery of microfiche records of Capital One credit card accounts in a Henrico County park last weekend left officials at the company horrified for themselves and their customers.
``They were old records that were supposed to be shredded and destroyed,'' Capital One Financial Corp. spokeswoman Diana Sun said Friday. ``Obviously, they weren't shredded. It's something that's unacceptable and we're fixing.''
The records were discovered by children playing in the park last weekend. More than 30 microfiche sheets, each with about 325 individual records, were still along a stream in the park Friday afternoon, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The microfiches contain copies of credit card bills with names, addresses, account numbers, account balances, purchases and other information.
Sun declined to say how the records made their way to Cheswick Park. She cited security concerns in refusing to elaborate further on just what happened.
``It's horrifying,'' she said. ``It's unacceptable, and we're horrified that it happened. Our customers' privacy is very important to us.''
Federal and state officials said the confidentiality of the information on the microfiches is probably not protected by law.
Capital One had received only a smattering of calls since the story first appeared in Friday's editions of the Times-Dispatch, Sun said, and most callers didn't seem too concerned that their privacy had been breached.
``People are wanting to know if their accounts are OK,'' Sun said.
She said there had been no reports of unauthorized charges on Capital One customer accounts as a result of the misplaced microfiche, but ``if that were to happen, they would not be liable. We would work with them on that.''
The park is not far from one of Capital One's branches in the Richmond area, Sun said, and the company does move records from site to site. She said the company is extremely concerned and the problem has been fixed.
Capital One occupies three floors of the Harrison Building in the Koger Center near the park. Three large Dumpsters, one with no top, sit behind the building. They are at the edge of the park, and the creek lies directly below them, down a steep bank.
Sun would not say whether the records had been disposed of in the Dumpsters.
A policy analyst with the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C., said similar incidents are not uncommon in banking.
``This kind of stuff happens all too frequently,'' Dave Banisar told the Times-Dispatch, blaming a lack of sensitivity about personal security.
A parent in the group at the park told the newspaper the kids returned from finding the microfiche sheets, read on magnifying machines found in most libraries, with varying estimates on how many sheets were in the area.
On Monday, one of the adults called Capital One to report the discovery, and the company sent a crew to the scene to retrieve the film.
It isn't clear how long the records had been in the park. Sun declined to say whether it had been days, weeks or months, or even whether Capital One knew the documents were missing before receiving Monday's call.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. One of 24 microfiches, containing credit card billsby CNBwith names, account numbers, and more, found in Henrico County.