NTL sorry for email gaffe

Honest mistake

By Tim Richardson • Get more from this author

Posted in Business, 13th December 2001 12:33 GMT

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Troubled cableco NTL has apologised for an administrative cock-up which resulted in the personal details of more than 800 employees being published without their consent.

The incident happened Friday, 2 November but has only recently come to light following a forum posting on nthellworld.com.

More than 50 people who were already on "gardening leave" from the cableco had expected to receive a list of vacancies within NTL.

Instead, they were sent a spreadsheet containing the names, addresses and other personal details of around 820 people earmarked for redundancy.

A few of the names had private comments written alongside their name.

One of those who received the email, but asked not to be named, told The Register: "I'm exceedingly annoyed that these details went out - but I'd be even more annoyed if I was one of those people with a comment next to my name. This is just typical of the lack of organisation within NTL."

Unconfirmed reports claim that the lapse has been reported to the Information Commissioner's Office (IC) which enforces data protection regulation in the UK.
A spokeswoman for the IC declined to confirm or deny whether a complaint had been made.

However, a spokesman for NTL said he was unaware of action. He apologised for the error, calling it an "honest mistake" by someone in their first week in the job.

On Monday NTL announced 2,000 job cuts. ®