Scotland Yard has obtained and examined the mobile phone records of more than 1,700 people working for News UK, the company which publishes The Times, in a major breach of privacy laws.
The data from phones belonging to journalists, lawyers, secretarial staff and senior executives covering the years 2005-07 was improperly disclosed to the Metropolitan Police by Vodafone, the telecoms giant.
Despite knowing that the data had been passed to it improperly, the Met conducted a data analysis of the material, built a spreadsheet listing outgoing calls made from 1,757 phones, and held onto the material for seven months despite requests to return it.
The data breach – which affects staff on The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun – is being