Android co-creator Andy Rubin has apologised to customers of its Essential Phone, after individuals who pre-ordered received an email requesting a copy of their driver’s license for verification, only to have their info leaked.
After submitting their personal information, shockingly, their responses didn’t just go to Essential, but everyone who received the email too.
The breach has resulted in about 70 individuals now possessing other peoples driver’s license information data.
While some individuals initially thought the mess-up was a phishing attempt, experts have revealed it was in fact Essential’s major error, and a result of a misconfigured customer support email list.
Chief Executive Mr Rubin has called the incident “humiliating” and that he is “personally responsible for this error”.
To remedy the error to the affected 70 individuals, Rubin has extended one year of LifeLock protection to prevent identity theft.
The misconfigured account has been disabled – to prevent more individuals being affected – and Rubin has pledged to further invest in infrastructure and customer support.
