Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers has secretly paid £1m (€1.16m) to settle cases involving allegations its journalists were involved in illegal phone tapping.
News Group allegedly paid the money in out-of-court settlements in three cases that involved hacking into the mobile messages of public figures to get stories, according to the Guardian newspaper.
News Group owns the tabloid newspapers the News of the World and The Sun.
Reporters are said to have hired private investigators to obtain the information that also included accessing personal data such as tax records, social security files and bank statements, the Guardian said.
Figures targeted by one investigator include model Elle MacPherson, former deputy prime minister John Prescott and celebrity publicist Max Clifford.
Mr Prescott said: 'Seeing some of the stories in the press that are always printed about me, and the family, I couldn't help but feel that they had more access to private information.
'The secretaries in my own office complained that the journalists had their private telephone numbers and mobile numbers, and couldn't understand why.'
Mr Clifford said: 'If these allegations prove to be true, then it's something that an awful lot of people are going to very unhappy about.'
In one of the cases, News Group paid out £700,000 (€809,000) in damages and legal costs to Gordon Taylor, the head of the Professional Footballers' Association, the Guardian said.
It said Mr Taylor sued the newspaper group after he was targeted by a private eye who hacked into his phone.
The Guardian said News Group settled with a condition that Mr Taylor sign a clause to prevent him speaking about the case.
The group's parent company, News International, the British subsidiary of Mr Murdoch's global News Corporation, declined comment on the Guardian's report.
'News International feels it is inappropriate to comment at this time,' a statement read.
Former Labour home secretary Charles Clarke said: 'The Guardian's revelations about News International phone bugging are sensational.
'If they are true, the behaviour of News International and some of its senior executives is disappointing, immoral and probably illegal.'
