Fall-out from Blippy’s Credit Card Blooper

Social networking site Blippy has had a tough week. After the credit card information of several users was discovered on some of Google’s indexed web pages, the company has been hard at work patching up the credit card blooper and introducing new security procedures.

While the stepped-up security will hopefully prevent a reoccurrence of Blippygate in the future, it remains to be seen whether the fall-out from the credit card leak will continue, as users start to question not just the wisdom, but even the value of social media sharing credit card purchases.

Conceived as a sort of Twitter for credit card charges, Blippy enables users to link up their credit cards so that each time they swipe their Visa or MasterCard, charges are automatically shared on the site. The less than one year-old company was the first to introduce the idea of sharing credit card purchases. While Blippy is mum about how many users it has, last month the site reportedly attracted around 125,000 visitors. The company recently closed raised $11 million from venture capitalists.

While the sharing is intended to be of the likes of, “Rachel spent $4.25 at Jamba Juice” or “Andy got a new 46” LCD TV at Best Buy,” a technical oversight occurring back in February meant that the website for half a day unwittingly allowed user credit card data to show up in its raw html code. In short, the accidental data spill meant that in addition to users’ purchases, the credit card numbers appeared as well.

Blippy quickly discovered the error and removed the credit card information from the code. However, the web pages on which the credit card numbers appeared had already been indexed and cached by Google. The cached pages then resided for months in the giant search engine’s immense memory vault, until Blippy finally caught wind of the error a few weeks ago, and sent word to Google to delete it.

Since the discovery of the credit card leak, Blippy has proved to be a quick learner when it comes to PR crisis management. The site has offered gracious, up-front statements acknowledging the error and apologizing profusely. In addition, Blippy has reached out to affected users, promising to work with them to resolve any issues that might arise from of the compromised credit card information.

But while profuse apologies and new security measures may be adequate to prevent future credit card leaks, it remains to be seen what the long-term effect will be for the financial social networking platform. Credit card security breaches are on the rise, and for many consumers, there may already be enough security risk in internet use to voluntarily sign up for more. In addition, many may question just exactly how important it is for the world to know that you charged $3.49 to your Visa credit card for a Starbuck’s latte.

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May 15, 2010 • Tags: Card, Credit Card • Posted in: Credit Cards

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