Personal data of customers at leading UK mobile phone company sold by staff for substantial sums to brokers and used by other mobile phone firms

Staff at a leading mobile phone company in the UK sold data about their employer’s customers to brokers in flagrant breach of the Data Protection Act. Customers had wondered why they were being contacted by rival companies asking if they wanted to switch to them when their contracts were nearly expired. The Information Commissioner – the Regulator in charge of enforcing data protection laws in the UK – said that the data was sold for substantial sums of money. Christopher Graham said that it was cases like that which justified the Commissioner’s calls for tougher penalties for data protection breaches. The Government plans to introduce much higher fines and even prison sentences soon to deal with cases like this and to act as a real deterrent to the unlawful trade in people’s personal details.