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Take ExtraCare in sharing this card

By TIMES WIRE
Published June 22, 2005

A security hole that allowed easy access to the purchase information of millions of CVS Corp.'s loyalty card customers prompted the company to pull Internet access to the data on Tuesday.

The drugstore chain, which has issued 50-million of the cards, said it would restore Web-based access to the information after it creates more security hurdles.

The data security flaw in the ExtraCare card service was exposed Monday by the grassroots group Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering, or CASPIAN.

It said anyone could learn what a customer had bought with an ExtraCare card by logging on to a company Web site with the card number, the customer's ZIP code and first three letters of the customer's last name. CASPIAN director Katherine Albrecht said a test she conducted showed a list of possibly embarrassing purchases, including condoms and a home pregnancy test kit, the date they were bought and how much they cost.

"This underscores the amount of data - the very sensitive data - about us that CVS has been collecting," she said.

Eileen Howard Dunn of CVS said the company provides the information as a service to customers. She emphasized that prescription information was not available.

WASHINGTON - The parent company of European aircraft maker Airbus has selected Mobile, Ala., over three other Southern sites for a $600-million tanker refueling factory, the Associated Press says.

The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. selected the Alabama site over three rival bids from Melbourne; Kiln, Miss.; and North Charleston, S.C., a congressional source and an Alabama source familiar with the industry recruiting project told the Associated Press on Tuesday.

The decision was to be announced today at a news conference in Washington. Officials at the company did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

But during a recent visit to a proposed site near Charleston International Airport, the head of the company's defense division said the contract would be a boon. If the company gets part of a military contract to manufacture KC-330 tankers, the winning community could land as many as 1,000 jobs.

"You're bringing in a whole bunch of top-level jobs. It was our opinion we did not want it to appear as if we cut some deal," said David Oliver Jr., chief executive for EADS North American Defense.

The immensely public search gave EADS some much-needed positive spin at a time when the United States and the European Union are engaged in a trade battle over the EU's subsidies to Airbus, which the United States claims gives it an unfair advantage over its chief rival, Boeing Co.

EADS hopes to get a substantial portion of an expected $9-billion in new spending for military tanker planes, but congressional leaders are trying to tie the subsidy debate to the contract decision.

"My only guess is the openness is political," said Charles Hill, a professor at the University of Washington School of Business, who closely follows the aeronautics industry.

"They are trying to send a message," he said. "Their strategy is to have quite a bit of work done in the United States. It is clear they want to be seen as a global organization, not just a European one."

NEWARK, N.J. - The chairman and CEO of Toys "R" Us Inc. and its chief operating officer will leave the nation's second-largest toy seller when it is sold to a private consortium this summer, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Employees of the retailer were told in the morning that chairman and CEO John Eyler Jr. and COO Christopher Kay would leave when the sale is completed, which is expected at the end of July, spokeswoman Susan McLaughlin said.

Toys "R" Us, which is incorporated in Delaware, would become a private company if stockholders on Thursday approve the sale to a consortium of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Bain Capital Inc. and Vornado Realty Trust.

CHICAGO - A tentative contract between UAL Corp.'s United Airlines and the union representing its ramp and customer-service workers calls for a 5.5 percent pay cut.

Terms of the five-year agreement, which was made available to the membership of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers on the union's Web site Tuesday afternoon, also include changes to holiday pay and vacation time, among other things.

Voting on the pact is expected to end by July 22.

SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt on Tuesday denied recent media and analyst reports that the online search engine leader is gearing up to compete directly with eBay Inc.'s pioneering PayPal service, although he acknowledged some kind of electronic payment product is in the works.

Although he declined to provide details about the project, Schmidt made it clear it won't trespass on PayPal's turf.

"We do not intend to offer a person-to-person, stored-value payments system," Schmidt said.

GATESES GIVE $5.4-MILLION GRANT: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said Tuesday it had awarded $5.4-million to a new biotechnology venture fund created by the industry's chief lobbyist and trade association. The four-year grant will be used by the nonprofit BIO Ventures for Global Health to encourage biotechnology companies to develop drugs for diseases now neglected by them because of disinterest and uncertainty about doing business in the Third World.

LASER PRINTERS DROP BELOW $100: Dell Inc., the world's largest maker of personal computers, said it has begun selling the first sub-$100 laser printer for home and small-office users. The $99 Laser Printer 1100 can produce as many as 15 pages a minute in black and white, Dell said.

Information from the Associated Press and Bloomberg News was used in this report.

[Last modified June 22, 2005, 01:08:17]