Thursday, September 2, 2010

Tabloid's Royal Eavesdrop Keeps Making News

UK - In November 2005, three senior aides to Britain’s royal family noticed odd things happening on their mobile phones. Messages they had never listened to were somehow appearing in their mailboxes as if heard and saved. Equally peculiar were stories that began appearing about Prince William in one of the country’s biggest tabloids, News of the World.

The stories were banal enough (Prince William pulled a tendon in his knee, one revealed). But the royal aides were puzzled as to how News of the World had gotten the information, which was known among only a small, discreet circle. They began to suspect that someone was eavesdropping on their private conversations. 

Scotland Yard collected evidence in 2006 indicating that hundreds of celebrities, government officials, soccer stars – anyone whose personal secrets could be tabloid fodder – might have had their phone messages hacked by reporters at News of the World. Only now, more than four years later, are most of them beginning to find out. (more)