There's an alarming rumor circulating that suggests that UK network O2 forwards your cellphone number to any website you visit with your smartphone. Lewis Peckover built a webpage that displays your header data, finding a field called "x-up-calling-line-id" which was his own phone number. Angry users have already flooded O2's Twitter, which is currently issuing the response:
"Security is our top most priority, we're investigating this at the moment & will come back with more info as soon as we can."
The Next Web confirmed that Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone do not send numbers, but GiffGaff (an O2-owned MVNO) does. TNW's sources say that it's most likely an internal testing setup that has been accidentally freed on the wider public. We're getting in touch with O2 to see if we can't learn more and we'll keep you updated as soon as we do.
Update: O2 confirmed that its "investigating with internal teams and it's our top priority". Slashgear and Think Broadband were unable to replicate the problem, so either the company is hurriedly fixing the issue or it was less widespread than initially believed.
Developing...
O2 data breach potentially shares your cellphone number with the world originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jan 2012 04:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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