# data[].attributes.headline
Northern Rock Scandal: The rise and fall

# data[].attributes.subject
Northern Rock Scandal: The rise and fall

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/11032772/The-rise-and-fall-of-Northern-Rock.html

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38714461

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
McDonald's was required to give away $25 million to random customers in the aftermath of its Monopoly giveaway scandal.

The fast-food chain was defrauded out of more than $24 million in a scheme in which a ringleader reportedly distributed winning Monopoly game pieces for a cut of the prize money.

McDonald's agreed to give away the equivalent amount of money to customers as part of a class-action settlement, which culminated in an under-the-radar event in which 15 random customers were each awarded $1 million from the chain.

Fond memories of McDonald's Monopoly giveaway may have soured with the news that the game was rigged.

However, many customers may not have realized they missed out on another chance to be a millionaire in the aftermath of the scam.

The story of how former police officer Jerry Jacobson masterminded a scheme to defraud McDonald's out of more than $24 million through its Monopoly promotion has been making the rounds after The Daily Beast ran an in-depth report on the incident.

Launched in 1987, McDonald's Monopoly game offered customers the chance to win up to $1 million if they collected the right pieces. Jacobson reportedly worked at the company that printed the game pieces and came up with a scheme in which he would provide people with the winning Monopoly pieces in exchange for a cut of the money.

Jacobson's network won almost every prize in the Monopoly game for 12 years, until the scheme began to fall apart after the FBI received a tip in 2000. In 2001, more than 50 people were convicted of mail fraud and conspiracy in connection with the Monopoly scheme.

McDonald's was not implicated in the scheme, but it pledged it would hold a new giveaway to return money claimed by Jacobson's network back to customers who had tried to win the Monopoly giveaway fair and square. Two weeks after the attorney general revealed the game had been rigged, the chain gave away $10 million to 55 random customers.

However, the $10 million wasn't enough. As part of the settlement for a class-action lawsuit against the chain, related to the Monopoly scam, McDonald's agreed to give away another $15 million to random customers - $1 million per winner.

"We made a commitment to return this money to our customers that should have been part of the prize pools,'' Douglas Freeland, then the US marketing director for McDonald's, told the New York Times in 2004. ''With the second giveaway, we will have done that."

In March 2004, the chain quietly awarded 15 random customers $1 million each.

There were no Monopoly pieces and minimal marketing, as two customers had previously sued the chain arguing that promoting the giveaway would drive sales and negate its purpose. Instead, the winner was determined by picking a random time of day at a random restaurant, and awarding whoever walked in the door at that moment $1 million.

"I didn't know what was going on," one winner named Erika Mendez told The Oklahoman at the time. "I completely forgot I was in there for food. They finally had to ask me, 'So what do you want?' I didn't take it too seriously. I thought, 'There has to be a catch to this.'"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
McDonald's was forced to quietly give 15 random people $1 million each after an ex-cop rigged the chain's Monopoly giveaway

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
McDonald's was required to give away $25 million to random customers in the aftermath of its Monopoly giveaway scandal. The fast-food chain was defrauded out of more than $24 million in a scheme in which a ringleader reportedly distributed winning Monopoly game pieces for a cut of the prize money.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/hm-hoodie-racist-boycott-advertising-people-h-m-a8149246.html

# data[].attributes.headline
Facebook scandal: Who is selling your personal data?

# data[].attributes.subject
Facebook scandal: Who is selling your personal data?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Offering handy parenting tips and £200 worth of vouchers, Emma's Diary may have seemed like the perfect website for new parents to sign up to.

But in exchange for free nappies, they also gave consent for their data to be used for a mix of advertising purposes.

It has now emerged that the data was sold to the Labour Party in 2017, even though the consent did not extend to political parties.

The site now faces a fine for misuse of personal data.

The case is part of the Information Commissioner's inquiry into political digital marketing, following the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.

What began with a look at the misuse of Facebook data has now opened a window on the complex ecosystem of online advertising, and thrown light onto the opaque world of data brokerage.

What is a data broker?

Data has been described as the "new oil" and data brokers play a huge role in extracting value from our personal information in all its forms.

They collect it from hundreds of sources, including census information, surveys, public records and loyalty card programs.

They then sell that information to other organisations.

One researcher, writing about the role of data brokers back in 2014, described the entire industry as "largely invisible".

It is an industry that has to date been unregulated, although the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU did put more onus on "data controllers" to ensure users understood how their information was being used.

Who are the big players?

Acxiom and Experian are probably the best-known data brokers - and they make a lot of money.

In the 2018 financial year, Acxiom is expected to make around $95m (£71m) and was recently bought by media advertising giant IPG.

But there are thousands of smaller players in the industry, alongside apps and websites that sign up users for one purpose, asking for consent to use their data, which is then sold on to advertisers.

As part of its inquiry, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) investigated Experian, Lifecyle Marketing (the owners of Emma's Diary), CACI and Data8.

How are they involved in the Facebook scandal?

Digital campaigning is now hugely important for political parties. It involves diving into often complex relationships with data brokers and data analytics firms.

In Facebook's case it had three data broker partnerships - with Acxiom, Experian and Oracle Data Cloud. It also allowed political parties to target an audience by gender, location, interests and behaviours and it offered what it called its Partner Categories service, allowing advertisers to draw on information compiled by the data brokers.

This data allowed the political parties to further refine their targeting, based on information such as whether a person owned their own home, whether they were looking to buy a new car or whether they were a loyal customer of a particular brand.

For example, an advertiser wanting to target new mothers could use information gleaned from data brokers about those who had recently bought baby products using a store rewards card.

Facebook has now said it will end this practice, which had been one of the key methods marketers used to link users' Facebook data about their friends and lifestyle with their offline data about their families, finances and health.

What next?

Privacy International has described the scope and scale of the ICO's investigation as "mindboggling".

"It shows that data exploitation is rampant and systemic. This goes way beyond Facebook, or a single ruthless company."

The whole industry is now feeling decidedly nervous, said Paul Wright, chief executive of the digital advertising platform Iotec.

"I think it was fair to say that the digital marketing industry got a wake-up call with the introduction of GDPR, and this ICO inquiry will remind people that we have a regulator that has teeth, which will worry some of the bad players in the industry."

Gareth Oldale, a partner at law firm Sharpe Pritchard, thinks the ICO investigation will force websites such as Emma's Diary to rewrite their privacy policies.

"The ICO's view is that simply signing up for a website and giving consent to your data being used is not enough, if it is never made clear that it may be shared with political parties.

"It will no longer be acceptable if individuals sign up to a website for a particular purpose, and they then re-use data for a completely different purpose," he told the BBC.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Who is making millions selling your data?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Offering handy parenting tips and £200 worth of vouchers, Emma's Diary may have seemed like the perfect website for new parents to sign up to. But in exchange for free nappies, they also gave consent for their data to be used for a mix of advertising purposes.

# data[].attributes.body
https://money.cnn.com/2018/04/24/news/companies/wells-fargo-timeline-shareholders/index.html

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34324772

# data[].attributes.headline
TSB admits 1,300 accounts hit by fraud amid IT meltdown

# data[].attributes.subject
TSB admits 1,300 accounts hit by fraud amid IT meltdown

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44385710

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/10/united-airlines-video-passenger-removed-overbooked-flight

# data[].attributes.body
http://uk.businessinsider.com/uber-company-scandals-and-controversies-2017-11/

# data[].attributes.body
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1780075.stm

# data[].attributes.headline
Worldcom 2002 (Telecom industry) - Forbes report

# data[].attributes.subject
Worldcom 2002 (Telecom industry) - Forbes report

# data[].attributes.body
Interesting reading - CEO Bernie Ebbers.

https://www.forbes.com/2002/06/26/worldcom.html#2f5323041318

# data[].attributes.body
2013 news report - Three years ago BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico killing 11 workers and causing the worst environmental disaster in US history.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Three years ago BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico killing 11 workers and causing the worst environmental disaster in US history.