Yahoo Finance 130,000 Telstra customers’ details leaked: ‘Unacceptable breach’
Telstra has apologised for breaching customer trust after it accidentally leaked the details of around 130,000 customers.
The telecommunications giant said it was in the process of letting affected customers know and was working to resolve the problem.
The information was made available via Directory Assistance or the White Pages, but affected customers were those that had opted not to have their personal details shared.
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“As part of our regulatory obligations, Telstra is responsible for providing Directory Assistance services and the White Pages,” Telstra chief finance officer Michael Ackland said in a statement.
“We recently discovered an error, which resulted in some customers’ names, numbers and addresses being listed when they should not have been. This was a result of a misalignment of databases – no cyber activity was involved.”
What is Telstra doing to fix the problem?
Ackland said as soon as Telstra became aware of the issue, it started to remove the identified impacted customers from the Directory Assistance service and the online version of the White Pages.
“We’re in the process of contacting every affected customer to let them know, and to offer free support through IDCARE,” Ackland said.
“We are conducting an internal investigation to better understand how it happened and to protect against it happening again.”
Telstra apologises
“Protecting our customers’ privacy is absolutely paramount, and for the customers impacted we understand this is an unacceptable breach of your trust. We’re sorry it occurred, and we know we have let you down,” Ackland said.
Ackland said while the telco had been working to improve its customer service, including being upfront about its mistakes, he acknowledged the company “must do better”.
“We know this isn’t good enough and we’re taking every step to make it right,” Telstra said in a Facebook post.
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