Deutsche Telekom boosts data protection

Germany's biggest telecommunications company said it would start posting online information on data protection incidents under investigation, would launch an annual data privacy report and set up an independent data privacy council.

"We want to provide maximum security for the data of our customers" and be "at least one step ahead" in combatting data theft, Chief Executive Rene Obermann said in a statement.

"To achieve this, we have to regularly upgrade our systems and structures, demand that people assume responsibility and hold managers accountable where there are shortcomings," he added.

The new board member overseeing data protection would have the right to veto business decisions related to customer data. Deutsche Telekom's supervisory board will have to sign off on the new department's creation.

The department "is to ensure that the necessary steps for safeguarding data privacy are decided centrally and implemented throughout the group," Obermann said.

The company said it also will restrict access by its staff and external sales partners to its computer systems.

Last weekend, the company said that personal information regarding some 17 million of its mobile phone customers had been stolen and that the theft--to which it alerted prosecutors--dated back to 2006.

Separately, German prosecutors in May launched an investigation into allegations that Deutsche Telekom monitored managers' call records to track possible leaks of information to media.