The jury is still out as to whether or not 2011 will be the year of “traitorware,” but so far it seems to be the year, at least from Microsoft‘s point of view, of “phantom data.” For some unknown reason several message boarders have started to complain that their Windows Phone 7 phones are automatically sending out anywhere from 30MB-50MB of data every single day. That could be problematic if you’re working with a relatively tiny data cap.
Microsoft has said that it’s currently checking into why this is occurring, which is exactly the response concerned users should have hoped for. At least Microsoft didn’t say something along the lines of, “We’re currently unaware of any ‘phantom data’ allegations, must be user error.”
Of course, people are speculating all over the place as to what could be causing phones to send out so much data. The big guess right now is that the phones are “phoning home” to Microsoft, sending information about phone performance at the like back to Microsoft HQ. You don’t want your gadgets phoning home without fair warning, particularly if you’re on a data cap.
But yes, Microsoft is investigating, which is all you can ask for right now.
Followed by a fix, of course!