T-Mobile Sidekicks lose data, with lessons for phone carriers and users

Phones need to make it relatively easy to back up the data they carry, preferably locally to your computer, and cell phone owners should take advantage of those methods.

Those are among the lessons of the past weekend's T-Mobile sidekick incident, in which Microsoft irreparably wiped out the contacts, call history, and other data for an specified number of Sidekick owners.

Yesterday, T-Mobile said that Microsoft—whose operating system, with the now-ironic name of "Danger," developed a glitch that caused the mishap—was still working to retrieve data from affected Sidekicks. Meanwhile, sales of the popular smart phone have seemingly been halted. (T-Mobile's Web site was this morning listing Sidekick models as "temporarily out of stock.") T-Mobile also said those whose data proved irretrievable would receive a $100 gift certificate to apply against their monthly service charges or any other T-Mobile expense.

The company has also posted tips on how at least some Sidekick owners might be able to recover some of their data, even as the T-Mobile/Microsoft data-recovery efforts continue. The tips include ways you might be able to retrieve old messages containing contacts or obtain contact information that was sent via vCards, electronics business cards that are sometimes attached to e-mails.

T-Mobile has also warned Sidekick owners not to allow their phone to lose power as Microsoft struggles to retrieve data.

Meantime, the incident shakes the notion that data stored on the carrier's server is assuredly secure. That confidence was also shaken a few years ago with another Sidekick-related incident, in which hackers managed to exploit a flaw in a T-Mobile Web site to obtain contacts and other information from Paris Hilton's Sidekick and share them with an eagerly-awaiting world.

The data loss also reinforces the need for cell-phone manufacturers and carriers to provide ways to back up your phone, preferably easily and not only to the carrier's server. As we advise with computers, important data should if possible be backed up in two different ways, and stored in two different locations, since no one mode of backup is infallible.

Unfortunately, such double security isn't easy, to say the least, with many cell phones. Most smart phones do provide such backup, but the Sidekick happens to be among the few that do not—something that T-Mobile and Microsoft obviously should address after the weekend's events.

We'll have more soon on what cell carriers and manufacturers–and you—can and should do to better protect the data stored on cell phones. –Paul Reynolds and Mike Gikas.