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Oh, it’s all going off in the UK at the moment, with the news that thousands of UK subs on the T-Mobile network have unknowingly had their data sold on to third parties, for what is apparently substantial sums of money!
For those that don’t live in the UK, we tend to take our data privacy quite seriously indeed – there are plenty of laws that are designed to protect – but what do you do when people on the inside are harvesting your details and selling them on to middlemen? The goal of selling on the data was to allow other companies to call these people before their contracts finished, and move them on to other deals.
Unfortunately the punishment for these offences are purely financial – which is why some are calling for a prison sentence to be introduced. Certainly a fine isn’t going to stop organised criminals from going about their ‘business’.
I do feel sorry for those people that have had their records misappropriated, because they are now the source of multiple calls today from various third parties (since the data has been shared around) apparently – quite apart from the fact that sensitive personal data that could be used to fraud them, is out there on the InterWeb.
Hopefully T-Mobile can get things back on track really quickly, and minimise the problems for people who are currently suffering. I’d think that perhaps decent gestures of goodwill would go a long way to helping, but that’s just me with my consumer hat on 
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
