It's hard to have any faith in a company that feels the need to outright lie to the media in an effort to convince its customers that their phone records are safe.
Cingular, my cell phone provider, did an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution yesterday in which their spokesman said the following:
"Cingular spokesman Mark Siegel... said Cingular isn't aware of any complaints from users who've had their records given out, nor has the company caught any of its own employees selling records."That's a lie, and Cingular knows it.
My records were stolen a week ago, and Cingular knows it. Not only did I call and raise hell, but I also published the fact on this blog and turned it into a national media feeding frenzy. Call me crazy, but I have a funny feeling that Cingular in general, and Mark Siegel in particular, are quite familiar with the fact that my records were stolen. Not to mention, CNN repeatedly broadcast the fact that my Cingular records were stolen, so how exactly does Cingular not know this?
I appreciate Cingular having sued the companies in question - though I still have to wonder why it took them until now to sue these guys. But I don't appreciate Cingular trying to reassure its customers by outright lying to them. Of course, this is the same Cingular spokesman who told the Washington Post last summer that the theft of our personal phone records was a "infinitesimally small problem." So perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that he's yet again downplaying the seriousness.
