Associated Press: UK: Millions of customers’ telephone records sold
The Associated Press reports that the privacy of millions of T-Mobile UK customers has been breached — in another case where an insider is thought to have abused his or her access powers:
Communications company T-Mobile acknowledged Tuesday that its clients’ personal information had been leaked to others — and millions of customer records could be involved, according to Britain’s information watchdog.
Information Commissioner Christopher Graham said the records were sold to rival phone companies for profit, calling the case a serious breach of data privacy.
T-Mobile UK said it alerted Graham’s office when it found that one of its employees passed on customers’ contract renewal information to “third parties” without its knowledge.
The information, which included customers’ contract expiration dates, were sold to several rivals, which then used the material to cold-call customers to offer them alternative deals, Graham’s office said. [...]
Graham said his office was considering the evidence and preparing to prosecute those responsible.
The Data Protection Act prohibits the selling on of data without prior permission from the customer. Offenders could be fined thousands of pounds (dollars), but Graham said the existing penalties fail to deter offenders.
“The existing paltry fines … are simply not enough to deter people from engaging in this lucrative criminal activity. The threat of jail, not fines, will prove a stronger deterrent,” he said.
Here’s the press release (pdf) from the UK Information Commissioner. In it, Graham says, “More and more personal information is being collected and held by government, public authorities and businesses. In the future, as new systems are developed and there is more and more interconnection of these systems, the risks of unlawful obtaining and disclosure become even greater. If public trust and confidence in the proper handling of personal information, whether by government or by others, is to be maintained effective sanctions are essential.”
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