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Confidential Police Documents Found In Confetti At Macy's Parade

Posted by samzenpus on from the putting-it-all-together dept.

cstacy writes "The Nassau County (New York) Police Department is 'very concerned' about reports that shreds of police documents (with social security numbers, phone numbers, addresses, license plate numbers, incident reports, and more) rained down as confetti in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The documents also unveiled the identities of undercover officers, including their SSNs and bank information, according to WPIX-TV. Macy's has no idea how this happened, as they use commercial, colored confetti, not shredded paper."

5 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. We still do this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Throw crap all over to celebrate what.... yay we're job creators! someone has to pick all this shit up!

  2. I call BS on this by multiben · · Score: 5, Insightful

    First of all, I believe Macy's on this. Why would you try to save a few bucks by using recycled documents? They're not a pet store. Secondly, confetti is usually pretty small, so who was walking around piecing tiny bits of paper together in the middle of the parade? I guess it's possible but the whole thing just smells like your standard internet myth.

    1. Re:I call BS on this by PCM2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In addition, I have a cross-cut shredder at my home. I've looked at the bits of paper that come out of it, and it's nigh impossible to get any meaningful information off of them -- certainly not "Pete Jones is an undercover police officer, yes that Pete Jones, the one who buys his cocaine at the Acme Bar, the guy with the weird mustache." And mine is pretty old, too. They have ones that slice and dice the paper much finer than mine.

      So, while I'm not saying it's impossible that somebody picked up some confetti at a parade and realized to their horror that it contained sensitive, confidential information; but if that did in fact happen, it was clearly an intentional act by someone.

      Cue the dramatic organ music... and now let's start talking Occam's Razor. Do we believe this story, really?

      --
      Breakfast served all day!
  3. I got two words for you by lsllll · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Cross Shredder

    --
    Is that a roll of dimes in your pocket or are you happy to see me?
  4. Re:How to shred by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Or just feed the paper into the incinerator in the basement that helps to heat your building.

    It is surprisingly difficult to burn large quantities of office-quality paper and ensure that nothing is left except ashes.

    Which is why such documents are shredded and then incinerated. I used to work for a bank, there's nothing difficult about it at all. The only thing people should take away from this article is that shredding documents really doesn't do much (if anything) to keep your data private.