T-Mobile is again being accused of failing to protect sensitive consumer data after an employee at one of its stores stole nude photos from a customer’s phone when she came to trade in an old device, according to a lawsuit filed Friday.
The incident is similar to at least eight other cases brought against T-Mobile in the past, according to court records and news reports. The lawsuit comes as wireless companies and other tech giants face increasing pressure from lawmakers to do more to protect customer data.
The lawsuit, filed in court in Washington, accuses T-Mobile of failing to properly train its store employees and “turning a blind eye” when employees use their access to steal customer data under the guise of helping them with repairs and data transfers . .
“For nearly a decade, T-Mobile customers in the United States have regularly reported, as evidenced in news stories and lawsuits, instances in which store employees have had their intimate videos, explicit photos, and bank accounts stolen,” the complaint says. “Nevertheless, T-Mobile has failed to implement common sense security hardware or software to protect consumers from misuse of their data and privacy during routine T-Mobile store transactions.”
T-Mobile did not immediately return a request for comment.
The victim, identified only as “Jane Doe” in the complaint, says she went to a T-Mobile store in the Columbia Center Mall, about 200 miles southeast of Seattle, last October to upgrade her iPhone XS Max to an iPhone. 14 ProMax. While there, she handed the old device to an employee so he could transfer her data to the new device.
While the employee had the phone with him, he found nude photos of the victim and a video of her having sex with her partner on the XS Max’s camera roll and sent them to himself on Snapchat, the lawsuit states.
Once the transaction was completed, Jane assumed her data had been wiped from the old phone, until she checked her Snapchat later that evening and saw that the images had been sent to an unknown account, which police later traced to the T- Mobile employee. .
“Anxious and concerned, Jane hurriedly returned to the T-Mobile store with her mother to speak with the store manager,” the lawsuit states. “During this time, while Jane sought help at the T-Mobile store, the unauthorized individual continued to log into her social media accounts on the iPhone XS Max.”
Initially, staff claimed there had been no trade-in that day, but with the help of mall security and local police, Jane’s old phone was found in the back room.
“Rather than help Jane in light of the sexual privacy crime, the T-Mobile executive said that if Jane wanted access to the old device that had been weaponized against her, Jane had to pay them the amount they had marked her down. ” for the trade-in,” the lawsuit states. “Jane’s mother surrendered on Jane’s behalf and paid the amount.”
The employee was later charged with computer trespassing, a misdemeanor, and making public intimate images, which is a crime in most states, according to the lawsuit. He pleaded guilty last month, the complaint says.
The lawsuit was filed by Carrie Goldberg and Laura Hecht-Felella at the New York-based CA Goldberg office and Emma Aubrey of the Washington-based Redmond Law Firm.
Goldberg, who regularly takes on tech giants for failing to protect consumers, called her latest lawsuit a “classic case of a giant corporation,” labeling customer injuries as a cost of doing business.
“T-Mobile has long known that its negligent hiring and flawed consumer safety policies will lead to at least some of its customers being sexually exploited,” Goldberg told CNBC.
“T-Mobile has big incentive programs to get customers to upgrade their devices and turn in their old ones. But the ugly truth is that T-Mobile knows that employees sometimes steal customers’ most intimate images and videos from the old devices that they cede.” Goldberg added. “This case shows that no one should feel that their privacy is safe with T-Mobile.”