Are They Right ???

gazindebt

Hi
A few weeks ago i refused to answer any security questions when sky cc phoned me but there representative read out my full account number to me over the phone , i wrote to them complaining that they had broke the data protection act but today i received the following reply ;

I have looked into your concerns and i can confirm that when a member of collections contacts you with regards to the arrears on your account, your account number is read out at the start of the call for monitoring purposes. This is part of Sky Cards policies and procedures and would like to clarify that this action is not in breach of the data protection act .

Can anyone advise me if this is true or not , if not my next step is the FOS as Sky also stated this is their final response .

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Wolfsbayne

When I worked for a credit card company a few years ago I was told under no circumstances should we ever read out the cc number or any other details to anyone over the phone. When ringing out to customers we asked for 'mr bloggs', explained where we were from and asked them for security details not the other way round. Definitely a breach in data protection.

GeorgeUK

I would certainly hope that it is against the DPA for this to happen,

Reminds me of when Jeremy Clarkson thought that all the publicity surrounding lost data was just hype and decided to publish his bank account number in a newspaper as he thought all anyone could do with it was deposit money. He stopped thinking that after someone set up a direct debit for £500 to go to a charity. Just a name and an account number - i still go through old receipts when i find them to make sure the account number isn't displayed.

If they sent you that explanation in writing, i would forward a copy of it to the ICO to see if this is a breach and have them comment on this "final response".

Edit:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7174760.stm

gazindebt

Thanks George
I did recieve this reply by post and want to take it further but being a bit thick who are the ICO cant recall reading or hearing about them before

GeorgeUK

Hi Gaz - Been ill for a few days and just got back to the computer.

ICO = Information Commissioner's Office.
http://www.ico.gov.uk/

They are the ones that are supposed to enforce the data security regulations.

Hope you get this sorted okay.