Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Smartphone maker "Essential admits it accidentally leaked customer info"

CNET:
Last night, it accidentally shared personally identifying information -- including driver's licenses -- of some customers with others, seemingly as part of an attempt to verify some would-be phone buyers' identities ahead of shipment.

At first, some customers (at the XDA-developers forum and r/Essential subreddit) assumed it was a ploy -- a phishing scam created to prey on buyers anxiously awaiting their new Essential Phone, so the data could later be used for identity theft. But in a new blog post on Essential's site, founder and CEO Andy Rubin admits it was the company's error.

...

It's a heck of a mistake, and it's worth noting that Rubin doesn't explain or apologize for Essential in any other way in the blog post, despite ongoing anecdotal reports that Essential still hasn't shipped many preorders two months after they were originally promised and over a week after it began charging people's credit cards.