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The BBC News reports that:
The 56 Dean Street clinic in London's Soho sent out the names and email addresses of 780 patients when a newsletter was issued to people who attend the clinic. Patients were supposed to be blind-copied into the email but instead details were sent as a group email.
From an interview with one patient:
One man, a 40-year-old public sector worker, has been HIV positive for 13 years and has been using the Dean Street clinic for five. He said: "I felt sick when I realised what had happened. I first saw the email at work but ignored it as I was busy. I then looked at it when I was on the way home from work. I couldn't breathe. I'm concerned who will get this information. If it ends up in the hands of the wrong people, such as hate groups, it could be dynamite."
Further:
Fellow patient James ... said: "I was travelling back from the pride parade in Manchester on Monday when I received this email. I couldn't believe it when I got it and I've been full of worry since. I am not ready to disclose my HIV status to my wider friends or family. I fear now that I have no choice."
Finally, a friend informs me that a breach of privacy at another clinic may be widely reported within the next few days.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 03 2015, @08:10PM
Ignoring your dictionary pedantry - calling the sender stupid is itself stupid. Sending a CC that should have been a BCC happens all the damn time. This person made an error that practically everybody on the net has made at least once in their lives.
The problem is not with the sender, the problem is that the tools are not fit for purpose. The clinic's email system should never have let a giant CC list go out without explicit human confirmation. In fact it is such a common problem that all email systems should give the user warning and a way to easily switch a message to BCC mode under such conditions.