The personal information of more than 74,000 Comcast customers, who paid a special fee to the company to keep their personal information private, was found in online and offline directories.
Comcast is one of the largest cable television service providers in the US, which also offers telephone and internet.
According to a document filed with the Public Utilities Commission on October 3, 2013, and published by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, more than 74,000 California Comcast subscribers have been affected by a company error that resulted in the exposure of sensitive information, such as names, addresses, and phone numbers.
The leak began in early July 2010 and continued until December 2012, and was discovered when two customers complained that their details, which should have been kept private, were available online.
Following the investigation launched by Comcast, in the context of the complaints, it discovered that the disclosure of confidential information was due to an agreement with the collaborating company Targus, which concerned the dissemination and publication of Comcast customer lists.
In turn, Targus distributed the information to third parties, resulting in some of the confidential customer information being published in public directories.
Users of the service paid $1.25 / €0.95 or $1.50 / €1.14 per month to keep their data private. It is worth noting that some of the customers resorted to this service for very important security reasons, and by making their data public they were exposed to life-threatening situations.
Comcast said it will offer compensation to affected customers, and in some cases, upon request, additional remediation and protection measures will be provided.
