Phone Giant Slapped with Major Lawsuit After Nude Images Stolen from Customer's Trade-In
One of the biggest telecommunications companies in America is facing a lawsuit after an employee stole nude images from a customer’s device.
The plaintiff in the case alleges that an employee of the company retrieved images of a sexual nature from her iPhone while transferring data to a new device, CNBC reported Friday.
The theft took place in October 2022 at the T-Mobile store at the Columbia Center Mall in southern Washington.
The lawsuit says the woman discovered that images from her phone — including nude photos and a video of her having sex — had been transferred to a Snapchat account. Police later traced that account to the employee.
The woman — identified by the pseudonym Jane Doe in the lawsuit — said she confronted management at the T-Mobile store in question, only to be told that she needed to pay the full price for the phone data transfer before she could get her phone back.
“Rather than helping Jane out in the face of the sexual privacy crime, the T-Mobile manager said if Jane wanted access back to the old device that had been weaponized against her, Jane would need to pay them the amount that they had discounted her for the trade-in,” the lawsuit says.
“Jane’s mother on Jane’s behalf surrendered and paid the amount,” it says.
The individual responsible for the theft of her content pleaded guilty to a charge of first-degree computer trespass last month, according to the lawsuit.
The suit points to numerous other cases involving T-Mobile allegedly “turning a blind eye” to theft of customers’ data.
“For almost a decade, T-Mobile customers across the United States have regularly reported, evidenced by news stories and lawsuits, instances of retail store employees stealing their intimate videos, explicit photos, and bank accounts,” it says.
“Nevertheless, T-Mobile has failed to implement any common-sense security hardware or software to protect consumers from their data and privacy being exploited during ordinary transactions at the T-Mobile store,” the lawsuit says.
At least eight other lawsuits have been filed against the phone company alleging similar privacy violations, according to CNBC.
T-Mobile agreed to a $350 million settlement earlier this year in connection to a data breach affecting its customers.
5. T-Mobile: $350 million
In July 2022, T-Mobile announced the terms of a settlement for a consolidated class-action lawsuit following a data breach that occurred in early 2021, impacting an estimated 77 million people.
— JACK AMARAL (@JackAmaral20) May 4, 2023
T-Mobile said in a statement that the individual responsible was an employee of a third-party contractor, CNBC reported.
“This was an employee of a third-party authorized retailer, and he was terminated,” it said.
“While we are unable to comment on the specifics of this pending case, we want to underscore that we take customer protection and issues like this very seriously,” the company said.
“We have policies and procedures in place to protect customer information and expect them to be followed.”
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