British Telecommunications Plc’s Chatline service, which enables up to eight strangers to have a conversation in the comfort of their own home, is set for another bout of criticism; a mother, who found that her unemployed 23 year-old son’s uncontrollable passion for the service resulted in a staggering UKP4,840 phone bill, was even more aghast to find that British Telecom had actually been monitoring his calls but didn’t inform her because, it said, this would be an invasion of the woman’s privacy.
