Hotmail Mobile back online after privacy glitch


22 May 2009

A technical glitch that allowed at least one Vodafone customer to view the private Hotmail account details of another user has been fixed following global downtime for the mobile webmail service.

A spokesperson for Vodafone Ireland said the issue was brought to light after a customer contacted the company who subsequently removed all links from the Vodafone Live homepage and alerted Microsoft to the problem.

“In co-operation with Microsoft, we took immediate steps to instigate a full investigation into the matter, including removing all links to Hotmail from the Vodafone Live homepage for a period last night and this morning.”

Microsoft also took its Hotmail Mobile service offline for a few hours until the glitch was fixed: ‘In order to protect customers, Microsoft also temporarily shut down Hotmail access through web browsers on mobile phones.,” added the Vodafone spokesperson.

“We believe this was an incident that has only occurred recently and impacted a small number of customers using particular handsets. Any customers with concerns are asked to contact Vodafone customer care on 1907.”

After a few hours offline the service is now fully operational.