A recent development has uncovered that the mobile phone company O2 gives out customer phone numbers to websites they visit using their phone.
A recent development has uncovered that the mobile phone company O2 gives out customer phone numbers to websites they visit using their phone.
O2, a UK mobile phone and broadband provider has been caught in a sneaky scheme where they give customer’s mobile phone numbers to the websites they visit using their mobile phones. The extent of data given by O2 appears to be dependent on which handset the customer is using. If you visit here using your phone without using WiFi you should be able to see all the data collected from your device.
Lewis Peckover confronted O2 on Twitter in a statement saying
“So, @O2 send my phone no in an HTTP header to every site I browse. WTF? Is this normal?”
O2 have responded saying
“We’re investigating this with our internal teams, and will come back with more as soon as possible.”
Increasing numbers of concerned customers have been contacting and tweeting @O2 about the situation as O2 investigate. It will be interesting to see how this develops considering how easy it was to discover the information was being given out and it raises questions such as, ‘How long it has been going on for?’. The increase in awareness of online free speech and privacy concerns with SOPA, PIPA and ACTA protests, it is understandable how people may be anxious of why such information is being transmitted in the first place.
O2 continue to update their Twitter page as the investigation continues.
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