FOLLOWING THE INQ's stories concerning MMS/picture messages leaking out onto the Net via Google, an official spokesman for O2 has confirmed that the operator had indeed taken down its web-based system.

The system enables people to view MMS pics online if they don't have MMS on their own handsets. O2 pointed out that handset-to-handset MMS messages still work.

The INQ has also established that one of the victims is now receiving nuisance text messages. This follows various postings by blogger Doug Stokes – including one on the official O2 customer forum here.

Calling himself duguk, the blogger claims that his ID has now been disabled on the O2 forum. His latest scandalous claim about O2 is that "e-mail doesn't work on PAYG and won't work on the Iphone either."

The MMS story has gone around the world and has even appeared on a site in Slovakia.

All the evidence points to the fact that the MMS pictures leaked out when the victim sent her pictures via an email link and posted them onto her own Facebook page.

The victim is adamant that, as she doesn't possess a PC, the pictures only got onto the net when she posted them to her Facebook page.

As one expert in the online forums commented, "Google could only have found the URLs if someone had posted links to them on another website - such as sharing them on their own blog or via a discussion forum." Which includes Facebook, of course.

She has spoken to O2 and received an apology.

The whole affair is an embarrassment for O2 given that the company runs the Protect our Children web site whose motto is "We are working on ways to protect your children". µ

See Also
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