Andy Rubin apologizes for Essential's privacy gaffe

You might remember our previous report about a possible phishing scam that Essential might have fallen victim a few days ago. Some customers who pre-order the Essential Phone received an email that asked for sensitive information like pictures of an ID and address.

Well, it appears that there was no hacking involved in the privacy issue, but rather a huge mistake from Essential's part. According to Andy Rubin, the reason some customers received those mails asking for personal data was an email account gone rogue.

It appears that the company made an error in its customer care function, as customer care rep had used a misconfigured account to send a single email to multiple recipients. About 70 customers responded positively to the request in the email and sent their sensitive info in their replies.

Unfortunately, the information ended up being sent to “a small group of other customers,” which means Essential can't do anything to erase these private details. To kiss and make up, Essential announced it has offered those affected one year's worth of identity theft protection service via LifeLock.

Moreover, Essential's Andy Rubin issued an official statement apologizing for the privacy mistake and promising that he will do everything in his power to avoid this happening again in the future.


In the meantime, the Essential Phone has yet to make its way to the shelves, despite the fact that the company announced a few times in the past that the smartphone is shipping.