Rarely do we see an exact corporate dollar figure loss caused by eavesdropping and wiretapping. Vodafone must hold the world's record with $136+ million in fines, not to mention good-will and revenue losses.
Greece's telecoms regulator has fined the Greek unit of Vodafone 19.1 million euros for breaching privacy rules.
The fine is the second imposed over a wiretapping scandal that rocked the country last year. In 2006, Greece revealed that more than 100 people, including the country's prime minister, had their mobile phones tapped around the time of the Athens 2004 Olympics.
In December 2006, Greece's privacy watchdog fined Vodafone Hellas 76 million euros for a "number of infringements attributed to the company", without giving details.
Last month, the privacy watchdog also fined the Greek unit of telecom equipment maker Ericsson more than 7 million euros over the wiretapping affair.
The bugged phones were found to have been tapped mostly before and during the Athens Games by unknown eavesdroppers. (more)
Moral: Ignorance of eavesdropping and wiretapping is no excuse. You need to pro-actively conduct inspections as part of your due diligence.
