A frugal life is an easy life!

T-Mobile, it has been revealed, are "working closely with" the Information Commissioner's office, over the passing on of millions of people's data and thousands of personal records of its customers.
The Information Commissioner's office, have interviewed staff after entering company premises with search warrants.

"Justice Minister Michael Wills has said that there was a "strong case" for introducing custodial sentences to prevent the illegal data trade" - the problem here is the law is clear but not being applied.
Under the Data Protection Act, information is not allowed to be passed or sold to any other company, without the individual's permission. Where the law fails is that only a "successful prosecution" results in an upto £5000 fine.
As anyone who has been cold called and requested information of where their own personal details have been received from, only to have the phone put down on them, knows, proving that companies have your personal data on their systems is hard enough, but to prove they sold it on, is almost impossible!

Also under the Data Protection Act, information is not allowed to be stored or transferred to or used, in countries that do not have the Data Protection Act, or similar legislation in place.
As we have all witnessed from the banks, insurance firms and other big businesses, they are passing on and using our information in countries not protected in the same way we are in the UK.

To be fair to T-Mobile, my family and I have been with o2 for many years now, two weeks before our contract is to be renewed, we get cold calls, from random businesses trying to sell us a new contract.
When I ask where they got my private number from, they put the phone down on me. I suspect that this happens to customers on other networks as well?