Scandal for T-Mobile

T-Mobile staff in the spotlight

The mobile phone company, T-Mobile has found itself at the centre of a scandal involving its staff. The firm has confirmed that staff at the company passed on millions of records from thousands of customers to third party brokers, who then sold the information to rival phone companies enabling them to phone customers when their contracts were about to expire and offer them a better contract.

The company is Britain's fourth-biggest mobile phone provider and has 16.6 million customers.

The details have emerged after the firm alerted the information commissioner, who said his office was preparing a prosecution.

Christopher Graham, who was appointed earlier this year as the watchdog responsible for safeguarding personal information, said the data breach was the biggest of its kind. He added that the case illustrated why there needed to be a prison sentence to prevent people from selling private data to third parties.

Graham confirmed his office was preparing a prosecution against those responsible for selling on T-Mobile data.

A T-Mobile spokesman went on to say the sale of the data had been "deeply regrettable" and that it had been asked to keep it secret to avoid any criminal prosecutions being prejudiced.

He said, "T-Mobile takes the protection of customer information seriously. When it became apparent that contract renewal information was being passed on to third parties without our knowledge, we alerted the Information Commissioner's Office.

He added that the company and the ICO "working together," had identified the source of the breach and that T-Mobile had "proactively supported the ICO to help stamp out what is a problem for the whole industry."

Prosecution

When the information first emerged that data had been sold, Graham said he wouldn't name the operator involved as it could prejudice a prosecution. T-Mobile were forced to name themselves as the phone firms 02, Vodafone, Orange, 3 and Virgin stated that they weren't involved.

Graham said investigators had been working with the company after it reported suspicions of an unlawful trade in customers' data.

The team from the Information Commissioner's office obtained search warrants to enter premises and have also interviewed employees.

Graham said, "Many people will have wondered why and how they are being contacted by someone they do not know just before their existing phone contract is about to expire.

"We are considering the evidence with a view to prosecuting those responsible and I am keen to go much further and close down the entire unlawful industry in personal data.

"But, we will only be able to do this if blaggers and others who trade in personal data face the threat of a prison sentence.

"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."

Justice Minister Michael Wills told the BBC that there was a "strong case" for introducing custodial sentences to prevent the trade in illegal data.

The Data Protection Act

The Ministry of Justice has been consulting on tougher penalties for illegal trade in personal information.

The Data Protection Act bans the selling on of data without prior permission from the customer and a fine of GBP£5000 can be imposed following a successful prosecution.

Justice Minister Michael Wills said the government was looking at bringing in tougher penalties to deter the illegal trade in personal information.

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