Globe says 8,851 subscribers’ data missent in ‘mailing error’

Globe Telecom Inc. on Tuesday admitted sending the personal data of more than 8,800 subscribers to the wrong recipients.

“It was just a case of sending the data registration confirmation receipt to the wrong individual and was not sent en masse or as a group of data,” Globe said in a statement.

“About 8,851 customers were affected out of 60 million prepaid customers,” the Ayala-led telco said.

Several Globe users went abuzz on Twitter that they received other people’s information after registering on the telco’s “On The List’ program for concert tickets and other events.

Globe said it reported the incident to the National Privacy Commission and rectified the issue with the customers involved.

“The On The List registration site was taken down immediately to remove access to potential registrants at the time and we have notified all affected prepaid customers of the issue,” Globe chief information officer Anton Bonifacio said.

The incident was not a data breach but a mere mailing error since the company was not hacked.

“It only affected prepaid customers who have registered to the On The List program to avail themselves of concert tickets and other music venues of Globe events,” it said.

In a separate statement, the NPC said they were notified by Globe about the incident on Sunday.

“Our team is still evaluating the incident and verifying the information given to us, following our standard procedure,” the commission said.

“Those who may have been affected are advised to monitor their online and offline accounts for any unusual activity, to change passwords and other means of identity verification, and to be careful of phishing attempts and other online risks,” it said. —VDS, GMA News