T-Mobile: Microsoft Lost Your Data

I have been without access to my phone’s address book and other data functions since last Friday. Such outages aren’t unheard of, but have never lasted longer than a day in the past. In the meantime, I finally got a new contract with Android-powered phone and rumors circulated that service would be back soon. I waited for my contacts to become available so I could transfer them to my new phone, and then I could ditch the Sidekick and let the prepaid account fade away.

Today, T-Mobile finally admitted that all of our data is gone:

Regrettably, based on Microsoft/Danger’s latest recovery assessment of their systems, we must now inform you that personal information stored on your device – such as contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists or photos – that is no longer on your Sidekick almost certainly has been lost as a result of a server failure at Microsoft/Danger.

(The way it works is that while your information is on your phone, it’s not really stored there, it’s in the cloud. You sign-in to your account and the phone downloads your contacts. You can replace your phone without having to worry about contacts because they are stored in the cloud. However, if something happens to the cloud, you’re screwed.)

Too bad there’s probably something in fine print somewhere that prevents anyone from being sued over this.