This smartphone company just leaked their users' information — twice — by accident [UPDATED]
Update from March 10th, 2025:
A Fairphone representative has provided the below a statement on the situation
Between March 3rd and 4th, 2025, a misconfiguration in our beta testing survey allowed participants to view responses from other testers. We identified the issue on March 4th and immediately took action to secure the data. In total, 24 participants were affected. As soon as we became aware, we:
We sincerely apologize to the forum members affected by this incident. Protecting Fairphone’s community’s data is a highly important responsibility. We are committed to learning from it and will be continuously improving our data protection practices to ensure careful and secure handling of user information going forward.
1. Restricted access to the form responses
2. Corrected the misconfiguration
3. Reviewed the incident to understand what went wrong
4. Implemented additional security measures to prevent this from happening again
On March 7th, 2025 we notified affected users about the data incident. Unfortunately, their email addresses were mistakenly included in the CC field. We immediately apologized and asked recipients to delete the email to prevent further exposure. We have reported these incidents to the relevant Data Protection Authorities within the required time frame as mandated by applicable data protection laws. At this time, there are no indications of additional impact.
— Fairphone PR Representative, March 10th, 2025
The original story from March 7th, 2025 follows below:
The company's response detailed that the issue was identified and rectified within hours, specifically on March 4th. They took immediate steps to restrict access to the form responses, correct the misconfiguration, conduct an internal review, and implement additional security measures to prevent future occurrences. Fairphone assured affected users that there was no evidence of data misuse and advised them to remain vigilant against unsolicited communications and suspicious activities.
Data breaches, regardless of size, can have significant implications. For a company like Fairphone, which prides itself on transparency and user trust, these incidents can severely damage its reputation. The company's quick response to the initial breach, while commendable, was overshadowed by the subsequent "reply all" error, highlighting a need for more robust internal protocols regarding data handling and communication.
We have reached out to Fairphone for a statement and will update this article accordingly once a response is received.
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Things that are NOT allowed: