This might just be the worst kind of missending ever.
Philippine telco giant Globe sent confirmation receipts to the wrong users, a data breach that is currently being investigated by the National Privacy Commission (NPC).
Globe admitted to it in a statement published on its Globe Icon Facebook page today.
According to Globe, about 8,851 prepaid users were affected by the incident. These were people who registered for their On The List promo to avail tickets for Korean girl group Blackpink’s concert on Saturday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Users were supposed to receive a confirmation message of their registration but some were sent forms completed by others.
Twitter user @jejeronimon shared screenshots of the message he received, which reveal that personal information like a person’s complete name, cellphone number, email address, home address, and birthday were compromised.
@talk2GLOBE Hi Globe! You're sending me PII (Personally Identifiable Information) of people registering to the list for the Black Pink concert. This is quite a violation. pic.twitter.com/AaHoXWEsMc
— Master Jewome (@hejieronymus) January 25, 2019
In its statement, Globe said that the data was sent to the wrong individuals and were not sent “en masse.”
It also said the On The List website has been taken down to prevent other users from registering, and that those affected have been notified.
The telco said that it has informed the NPC about the data breach; the NPC confirmed this in a statement today.
“Based on their report, the personal data breach occurred due to a system error,” the NPC said.
It said that it is still verifying the information Globe provided and it is currently evaluating the incident.
The NPC also advised users who may have been affected to monitor their online and offline accounts for any unusual activity, change passwords and other means of identity verification, and be careful of phishing attempts and other online risks.
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