LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) -- Your name, address, and personal account information may be used in training at Insight Communications. Former employees say recorded conversations with customers’ personal information was made available to them and even copied onto CD's to take home for training.
"Do you mind reading me the account number as it appears on the front of our card?" asked an Insight Customer Service Representative. This question was followed by the full disclosure of an account number by an Insight customer during a real life service call. The recording has been played in its entirety for Insight employees during training. Carolyn Auer, a former Insight employee, says she was given a copy of this recording for training purposes. “We were listening to these to try and get our call flows to be as good as hers," said Carolyn Auer.
In doing this training, Auer says Insight employees were exposed to different kinds of personal information of multiple customers including names, addresses, and phone numbers, but that's not all.
“Social Security card numbers, it had bank card numbers, expiration dates, routing numbers on their checking accounts and checking account numbers," added Auer.
Insight spokesman Jason Keller says this is the first time customer information has been released for employees to take home.
“There was an acceptation made in three cases and we have gotten the information back in two of them and in one of them, we believe that individual is in possession of stolen property," said Jason Keller. He stresses customer privacy as a cornerstone of Insight's business, but says it is common practice for Insight to use recorded calls with personal information in training. Keller admits the possibility exists this information could be used in the wrong way.
"We always try to hire the highest quality employees to fill those roles. From that standpoint we don't think it would ever become an issue. If it ever became an issue, we would evaluate all the options available to us including law enforcement,” added Keller.
The lone woman with a tape has said she will turn hers in, but the fact this information has and apparently will continue to be made available to even the newest of Insight employees worries Carolyn Auer as a former employee and current Insight customer. "If this got in the wrong hands, if somebody broke into my car and took the CD, God only knows what would happen with this," said Auer.
Jason Keller says Insight will continue to evaluate its privacy practices and says the company will try to hire the best individuals to handle private information. Keller says there are currently no plans to change the way private customer information is handled.
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