Monday, October 12, 2009

Danger Fingered In Sidekick Fiasco

Palo Alto-based Danger, the operator of a data information service for T-Mobile Sidekick users, is getting blamed for a huge data loss fiasco that occurred over the weekend. According to T-Mobile, its users have lots their personal information stored on their Sidekick devices, due to a server failure at Danger/Microsoft. According to T-Mobile, personal information stored on Sidekick devices, including contact, calendars, to-do lists, and photos--have "almost certainly has been lost" due to that server failure. Danger was acquired by Microsoft in February of 2008 for around $500M. Danger, Microsoft, and T-Mobile warned users not to reset their devices, remove their battery, or let those devices' batteries drain, at risk of losing the personal content on those devices. The issue surfaced late Friday evening after a week of technical issues. T-Mobile has removed all retail models from sale at its web site, and apparently also at its retail stores.