News today that local authorities have managed to lose sensitive data on individuals over 1,000 times in the past three years is serious stuff, and underlines how much information we place in the hands of civil servants tasked with running the country.

The data, uncovered by privacy advocates Big Brother Watch, revealed that most of the incidents councils fessed up to involved the loss of devices such as laptops, mobile phones and USBs, which is not a huge surprise.

However, there were one or two bizarre incidents that caught Sneak's eye and show that for all the legislation and technical measures you can put in place to try and stop data going missing, you can't legislate for every eventuality.

These incidents include a staff member in Kent leaving a diary on top of his car before driving off, causing the diary to go missing, while the same error befell an employee in Gloucestershire who left conference case notes on the roof of his car.

An even better Gloucestershire incident, though, was the case of a van delivery door swinging open causing several bags of files to go missing, although all but one were recovered in the end. The council's action? "Van door fixed".

Sneak's favourite, however, was the report from an authority in Aberdeenshire that it lost sensitive data when a paper file was "blown away in the wind". This led to a verbal warning for the staff member involved and a "review of handling paper outside".

Basically, if it's windy, don't let go of paper, is the thing to remember. It certainly gives a new meaning to the term cloud computing anyway.

If the US producers of The X Factor were in front of a panel of data security legends (and Simon Cowell) right now they'd be ripped apart with merciless wordage, after they lost the details of over 250,000 entrants to the competition, some as young as 12.

According to the Daily Star, the data was lost by Fox Broadcasting which reportedly sent a letter to affected parties admitting that the hack had taken place and that it was working with the long arm of the law to try to claw its way back into the public's affection.

"It is possible that the information you did provide to us, which included your name, email address, zip code, phone number [which was optional], date of birth and gender, may have been accessed," Fox said, possibly in a falsetto voice.

"We are taking this matter very seriously and are working with federal law enforcement authorities to investigate this illegal action."

The fact that kiddies as young as 12 could be affected by the hack is no doubt a serious matter, and, for one pop supremo, the fact they are allowed to enter at all is too much.

"With the whole Justin Bieber thing, I can see why lowering the age threshold might be seen as a good thing, but personally I think it should be set at about 15 or 16," chart-topping The X Factor hero Shayne Ward told Digital Spy (good work guys!).

Sneak couldn't agree more, Mr Ward; 15 or 16 is usually when most musicians flourish, and we want to make sure we get as much from the 40, 50 or even 60 year careers that no doubt await them, just as you and your winners' circle have proved.