For Huge Amounts of Money!

What’s the Deal?
Well, this would certainly explain why many customers have been reporting excessive phone calls from people they know they never gave their number to…

According to the Information Commission’s Office and in a statement form the Commissioner himself, in a press release on November 17 2009, investigators

…have been working with a mobile telephone company after the firm suggested employees allegedly sold details relating to customers’ mobile phone contracts, including their contract expiry dates. It is alleged that the information was being sold on to the service provider’s competitors whose agents were using the material to cold call customers prior to contract expiry dates to offer them an alternative contract. The service provider has alleged that many thousands of customer account details have been unlawfully obtained.*Emphasis added.

According to an official statement on the T-Mobile website, and to their credit, T-Mobile states they alerted the ICO the minute they heard the reliable information. And apparently some statements were made to the BBC in regards to T-Mobile’s handling of the situation, prompting this response form T-Mobile’s Official Forum :

Working together, we identified the source of the breach which led to the ICO conducting an extensive investigation which we believe will lead to a prosecution. Whilst it is deeply regrettable that customer information has been misappropriated in this way, we have proactively supported the ICO to help stamp out what is a problem for the whole industry.

We had been asked before today to keep all information on this case strictly confidential so as to avoid prejudice to the investigation and prosecution. We were therefore surprised at the way in which these statements were made to the BBC today.’ *Emphasis added*

The statement was later updated to reflect newer information concerning the type of information sold and T-Mobile, in that statement, confirmed there was no financial information of any customer compromised in any way, stating:

information passed on to third parties was restricted to the customer name, address and contractual renewal information. We continue to work with the IC to help stamp out what is a problem for the whole industry.

ICO’s Commissioner Christopher Graham further stated in the report the fact that businesses, public authorities and government authorities collect personal information and that in the future the collection of this information will become easier and therefore worse as time goes by, with the invention and utilization of more and more sophisticated equipment to do so. The risks will become greater for unlawful use of that information to take place.

In the end of the report, there is a list of 8 principles all should live by when collecting information, stating:

“Anyone who processes personal information must comply with eight principles, which make sure that personal information is:
• Fairly and lawfully processed
• Processed for limited purposes
• Adequate, relevant and not excessive
• Accurate and up to date
• Not kept for longer than is necessary
• Processed in line with your rights
• Secure
• Not transferred to other countries without adequate protection

And the Verdict Is?
Anyone who has the guts to criticize T-Mobile for doing not only the right thing, but what they were told to do by the ICO, has got to be out of their mind. Think about this. When they found what was going on, they could have easily blackmailed the person selling the info and therefore getting a cut of the monies this person was collecting. He didn’t. Instead he reports it to the authorities and cooperates with them in order to prosecute the person responsible. Now if you ask me, that was the best thing to do and T-mobile has gained my respect 100% for this one. I hope they keep up the good work and that those who criticize, knock it off! they did what anyone should do. The right thing.

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