Aachen, Germany - An Italian-owned insurance company was under investigation in Germany Wednesday after printouts listing its customers and their bank account numbers were found unshredded in a rubbish bin. Passers-by noticed the papers in an unlocked bin parked outside a shopping centre in the city of Aachen and reported it to the police, who impounded the whole bin.
City police confirmed the documents came from Aachen Muenchener, the German unit of insurer Generali. They said thousands of customers were listed by name, address and bank account.
Aachen Muenchener said it had contracted with a removals and disposals company to destroy the documents during a relocation.
"We are currently discussing with this outside contractor how it could have happened that the document bin was neither supervised nor properly locked on Tuesday," company spokesman Andreas Krosta said.
"The bin was stuffed full," said a police spokeswoman. There was a lock on the lid, but it was not shut.
Bettina Gayk, the state data privacy commissioner who has powers to impose fines for privacy breaches, said there could be charges of improper disposal of sensitive data against whoever was to blame.
Failing to direct waste contractors to properly dispose of data could mean a fine of up to 250,000 euros for the data owner, a spokeswoman for Gayk added.
