Vodafone's recently issued correction to new customers - crediting them with five pounds it had inadvertently billed for internet access - also bundled the email address of the 416 people to whom it was sent.

It's the old "BCC" and "CC" problem, though really a company like Vodafone should know better than to reveal the email addresses of more than four hundred customers to every recipient. Worse than that is the storm of emails as each of them reaches for the "reply to all" button to vent their spleen on the subject of operator incompetence.

Whether the operator will now send apologies to the 416 punters who've had their email addresses compromised we don't know.

The company told us this was the first time anything like this has ever happened - at Vodafone anyway. They said it was clearly down to "human error", though what punishment awaits the human in question remains to be seen.®

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