NEWS13 May 2013
UK — Ipsos Mori has refuted newspaper reports that it was offering personal data for sale from 27m customers of the EE mobile phone network.
The Sunday Times (£paywall) reported that the firm offered EE call and text data to the Metropolitan Police, private companies and other bodies that includes “gender, age, postcode, websites visited, time of day text is sent [and] location of customer when call is made”.
The newspaper claimed that documents promoting the data stated that people’s mobile phone use and location could be tracked in real time with records of movements, calls and text also available for the previous six months.
However, the paper said that the Met withdrew from talks over paying for some of the data after being contacted by the Sunday Times.
In a statement, Ipsos Mori said that it “absolutely refutes the suggestion that it is offering access to individual personal data for sale”.
The company pointed out that its research explores user volume, demographics and mobile web use from anonymised and aggregated groups of people.
The statement continued: “Ipsos Mori only received anonymised data without any personally identifiable information on an individual customer. We do not have access to any names, personal address information nor postcodes or phone numbers.”
UPDATE @ 1.33PM
Research has received the following statement from the MRS:
“MRS is aware of The Sunday Times report about Ipsos Mori’s research with Everything Everywhere (EE) and have been in contact with Ipsos Mori this morning. We have received assurances from Ipsos Mori that the report is inaccurate, and that their research involves access to aggregated and anonymised data only, supplied by EE. Further details on the research is available from the Ipsos Mori website.
“Ipsos Mori is an MRS Company Partner and has agreed to follow the MRS Code of Conduct. We will investigate any complaints we receive accordingly.”