As if T-Mobile needs another PR nightmare. Fresh off a widespread service disruption that left at least 5 percent of its users without voice, text and data services, not to mention the Sidekick data debacle, comes news that T-Mobile employees in the U.K. sold “millions of records from thousands of customers” to third-party data brokers, per BBC News.
T-Mobile told BBC News that the employees sold the data — mostly about customers whose contracts were nearing completion — without the company’s knowledge; data brokers bought the info, then sold it to other companies that would cold call the customers as their contracts were set to expire. Christopher Graham, the U.K.’s newly-appointed Information Commissioner, dubbed it “the biggest” data breach of its kind.
T-Mobile first reported its suspicions about the illegal data-trading to Graham’s agency, which then obtained search warrants and interviewed various employees. The office is prepping to prosecute the as-yet-unnamed offenders, with Graham making the case that the current penalties for these kinds of offenses — fines, but not jail time — aren’t severe enough to deter people from selling data in the first place. No word on how or whether the offenses will be discussed in light of T-Mobile U.K.’s planned merger with Orange.
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