Local telco giant Globe Telecom is now the subject of a recent data blunder after the company reportedly sent out email notifications containing someone else’s personal information. Privacy blogger Ray Walsh of BestVPN.com first picked up the news over the weekend
According to those affected, it all started from a text message from Globe informing recipients that they were pre-qualified to be part of On The List, an exclusive community of Globe Prepaid users.
To entice subscribers, registered members will have a chance to win tickets to watch the Kpop band BlackPink. The registration link redirects users to a page that would ask for customers’ complete name, their Globe prepaid mobile number, email address, city, complete address and birthday. While there was a privacy consent at the top of the registration field and a link to the company’s data privacy policy, a data breach still happened.
Those who were able to register said that they received an email from Globe confirming their registration. However, the said email contains personal information of other registrants. We were not able to get a hold of that controversial email but it must have the same information required during the registration phase.
Globe has yet to release an official statement regarding this privacy incident but a quick check on Twitter revealed that their social media account has been replying to some of the users who are reporting the incident. Affected users were also advised to lodge a complaint through the National Privacy Commission (NPC).
We will try to reach out to Globe’s Data Protection Officer to get their statement regarding this. As soon as we get valuable feedback, we’ll keep this article updated.
***Update***
January 29, 2019 – Globe released an official statement saying that they have “rectified the issue” and, notified NPC and the affected customers of the incident. Furthermore, the company clarified that the issue only affected its Globe Prepaid users who registered to the On The List program. “About 8,851 customers were affected out of 60 million prepaid customers.” Globe also took down the On The List registration site.
January 29, 2019 – NPC, through Commissioner Raymund E. Liboro, also released an official statement confirming that Globe Telecom indeed notified them regarding the data breach last January 27, Sunday. Their team is now evaluating the incident.
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