Telstra under investigation for massive mail botch-up
27 Oct 2010
Australian telco Telstra is under investigation by both the communications and privacy watchdogs after it sent out 220,000 letters that contained account information belonging to other customers.
The letters, which contained details of customers other than recipients, explained upcoming fixed line price changes.
According to Telstra, the snafu was the result of a "mail-merge error", which caused the 220,000 letters to be sent to the wrong addresses.
In a joint announcement today, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner said they were examining the circumstances under which the botch happened.
Welcoming Telstra's prompt advice that the incident occurred and that the company had taken steps to contact affected customers, privacy commissioner Timothy Pilgrim said he was concerned about the amount of personal information that had been disclosed, which includes potentially sensitive information such as silent numbers.
"Customers expect their personal data to be protected by organisations and incidents such as this are very serious. For this reason, my office will be opening an investigation into the matter today."
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