14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this week, Virgin Media apologized to customers after one of its newsletters was sent from an improperly configured mailing list. The United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office has confirmed that it’s investigating the incident.
All those who received the email could “reply-all” and send messages to all others who had gotten the same notification. All those who replied exposed their virgin.net email addresses to the others.
One commenter has told us that he received around 700 emails, but described the incident as being “entertaining.” However, not everyone was happy about it, many Virgin Media customers filing complaints with the ICO.
The ICO has confirmed that it’s investigating the incident, and has asked the public not to file any more complaints because the agency has enough information.
“We have recently been made aware of a possible data breach relating to emails sent out by Virgin Media,” an ICO spokesperson said.
“We will be making enquiries into the circumstances of the alleged breach of the Data Protection Act before deciding what action, if any, needs to be taken.”
Virgin Media says that only a small portion of its customers received the email in question, but The Daily Mail reports that around 130,000 people are affected.