New Revelations about T-Mobile Customer Data Leak
January 1st, 2010
The news that staff of T-Mobile leaked sensitive information about customers to brokers made headlines not so long ago, prompting a flurry of protests and a request for the implementation of stringent measures to curb the practice. It has now been found that T-Mobile was aware for about a year of the anomalies before action was taken.
After the scam was revealed, it emerged that third party brokers were buying up the data from T-Mobile staff and selling it to competitors in the mobile business. Information such as expiry of contracts was being used by competitors to poach customers at the fag end of T-Mobile broadband plans. Following this, protestors clamoured for strong punishment for those found dealing in private information.
Now, new findings show that T-Mobile officials may have been aware of the leak for about a year before it came out into the open. No action was taken by the company in the interim period. This has been revealed after an enquiry was made to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) regarding the date when T-Mobile first made the suspicions about the leak known. ICO officials confirmed that they came to know of the matter on 16 December 2008 following a specific notice from T-Mobile.
While investigation has still not concluded in the case, the need for strict measures in such situations is quite evident, according to many critics. This instance of breach of customer privacy was called the biggest such breach in history when the news of the leakage first hit the media.
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