For someone with as wide (and, I guess, untechie) an audience as Clarkson to deny that data protection is necessary isn’t just misguided, it’s downright evil.

Hence the hate, and the jubilation when he gets smacked.

So, “Revenge is Sweet”? I believe the word we’re looking for here isn’t ironic, but “poetic”.

Nice to see ‘just deserts’ spelt correctly, though.

A lot of folks on the other side of the fence are just as loud and obnoxious as he can be – being a leftie does not automatically make you Not A Jerk.

But still he’s a maverick and oh-so-cool for not joining in the ‘hysteria’.

Isn’t he??

Let’s have more belittling and denial of the public’s grave and well-founded concerns. I haven’t had my full helping yet.

This is no longer coincidence and crosses over into irony, right?

However, I have to give Clarkson major kudos here. He literally put his money where his mouth was, a rare thing nowadays. When he was proven wrong, he’s basically shrugged and said “yeah, you got me. I was wrong”. Can you imagine any other public figure who would do that without trying to get revenge or deny the story or make some other public display trying to pretend they weren’t at fault? I can’t.

Its a normal bank to bank direct debit only allowing funds to be transferred to known organisations, there is a bank guarantee attached to it which means this transaction can be reversed in seconds.

annoying yes, but we are not talking about an anonymous 3rd party transferring money.

Hopefully a few more people have now realized that Clarkson is a dribbling publicity whore, and not the second coming.

Clarkson proved an idiot. Data loss scandal back in the papers. Money to diabetes charity. Perfect!

Clearly someone was trying to make a point, and yes it is necessary to protect data, but Mr. Clarkson demonstrates rule #1 for data protection: most data breaches occur due to silly practices by end users. Social engineering and bubble headed end users are probably responsible for most problems.

I have no data to verify that since I’m just waking up, but I am a firm believer (ask any DRM software engineer) that if a lock is conceivable so is the key, or a way to nick it from someone else.

I do have to say, these sort of colossal account data breaches happen far too often. I get spam mail now because of a subscription account that became compromised- legal notifications and all. I’m grateful it’s no worse than that.

Personally, I suspect I have less to fear from black hat hackers than I do from Corporate America- think Enron or Halliburton. Robber barons all.

It’s an ironic stunt indeed, what happened to him. And it’s certainly good to see that he has changed his tune a little on this subject.
But I don’t think that is a cause to pour out this much bile over him.
If you don’t agree with his views, then either don’t read his columns, or do try to educate him (if you are in the capacity to do so).
Don’t spout your nastiness in some anonymous forum about how absolutely awful he is as a person when you don’t even know him personally. After all, it could all be just an act.

this isn’t someone stealing his money, he could have it all reversed in seconds as said above. and companies have to be pre-approved to be able to use direct debits… this doesn’t stop it being a problem for anyone who’s phone company has screwed up their bill and instantly withdrawn loads of money from your account.

clarkson is playing a character,a rather odious one at times.. and doing very well out of it. don’t believe the hype.

No, it’s certainly not irony. It may be “just deserts”, a fitting punishment, funny, appropriate, incongruous, surprising, or all of the above. But it’s not ironic.

Ask yourself: where is the double meaning?

The thing I really look forward to is the ‘Jeremy Clarkson Swears for Good Reason Edition,’ followed by the ‘Jeremy Clarkson Tribute Special.’ Funnily enough, I used to watch the Crocodile Hunter for exactly the same reason.