Breach Of Data Protection

lelilo1

Hiya Folks,
I dont know whether this is the correct place to be asking this question but i thought it would be a good place to start. So i appoligise before hand if im incorrect. Any way i have recently had a dispute with my car finance company. My car was bought on hire purchase about 2 months ago the company called my home and discussed my account with my partner who was highly oppse to the idea. In fact he had no idea i had the car on hire purchase, which caused no ends of problems. I have taken this up with the company and they have offered me £100 as a good will gesture. They have however breached the data protection act 1998. I did ask them for what i would consider fair and that the interest be taken off my account. I dont know really where i stand, 1 of the terms of contract include the part of data protection which would be breach of contract or is this breach bordering in to the tortious act. Any advice welcome.....

newfoundglory

Take the 100 quid - its the most you'll get. Its quite generous.

DPA provides for compensation, but only in the case when you can prove you have suffered DIRECT FINANCIAL LOSS as a result. You can't, and are therefore entitled to nothing.

Data protection law is legislation, and wouldn't fall under breach of contract.

If you believe this company probably does this quite a bit to other customers, I would suggest you contact http://www.ico.gov.uk who can investigate how this company processes data. They can warn them, force them to stop doing it and even prosecute data controllers in some cases, but have no power to award you compensation.

aloiseb

Your local library enquiry desk might be a good place to start looking for someone who can....or maybe the Citizen's Advice Bureau? They are all free I think.

I agree £100 doesn't seem much for the problems you have suffered - but they presumably don't want to end up in court discussing the data protection act either. I expect they have company legal advisors who might get involved if you try to "haggle" the price of your compliance up, unofficially? That's why I think it might be better to get advice from someone who knows about these things.

aloiseb

...looks as if newfoundglory is that person who "knows about these things " and beat me to it!

lelilo1

Well as it happens and in response to 'newfoundglory's post i believe that i can quantify financial loss. After this event myself and my partner di actually split up so financially i was down in his income with in my household....and do actually have documented evidence by means of drop in income showing quite prominantly on my bank statements. So would u think i had reasonable grounds to persue this matter further? after hearing that i do in fact have some sort of evidence.

Kind Regards

newfoundglory

No.

Is that DIRECT financial loss?

You have suffered financial loss as a result of the break-up, not as a result of data protection breaches.

I should add, however, that I am not a lawyer. This is my limited knowledge and understanding of the law.

CLAPTON

lelilo1 wrote: »

Well as it happens and in response to 'newfoundglory's post i believe that i can quantify financial loss. After this event myself and my partner di actually split up so financially i was down in his income with in my household....and do actually have documented evidence by means of drop in income showing quite prominantly on my bank statements. So would u think i had reasonable grounds to persue this matter further? after hearing that i do in fact have some sort of evidence.

Kind Regards

Just assuming you are being serious and are not a troll, then surely the major problem here was a very unsatisfactory relationship which was best ended.

lelilo1

Thanks CLAPTON for that i am serious and i am not a TROLL what ever that is???? It was mere advice regarding breach of data protection that i was after and not relationship advice respectivley.

Kind Regards

Credit-Crunched

lelilo1 wrote: »

Thanks CLAPTON for that i am serious and i am not a TROLL what ever that is???? It was mere advice regarding breach of data protection that i was after and not relationship advice respectivley.

Kind Regards

£100 is VERY VERY generous, take it you will get no more in court. All you have is non-tangiable arguments that a judge would laugh at.

Dont mean to sound harsh but £100 is quite a good result!

standupguy

lelilo1 wrote: »

Hiya Folks,
I dont know whether this is the correct place to be asking this question but i thought it would be a good place to start. So i appoligise before hand if im incorrect. Any way i have recently had a dispute with my car finance company. My car was bought on hire purchase about 2 months ago the company called my home and discussed my account with my partner who was highly oppse to the idea. In fact he had no idea i had the car on hire purchase, which caused no ends of problems. I have taken this up with the company and they have offered me £100 as a good will gesture. They have however breached the data protection act 1998. I did ask them for what i would consider fair and that the interest be taken off my account. I dont know really where i stand, 1 of the terms of contract include the part of data protection which would be breach of contract or is this breach bordering in to the tortious act. Any advice welcome.....

You can claim compensation for damage and/or damage and distress caused by the breach of the Data Protection Act.

Breaches are taken very seriously and Financial Institutions do not want the issues it can cause them together with the poor publicity.

You have asked for compensation you consider to be fair and they have come back with a £100 good will gesture.
Treat this as their opening gambit to see if you will go away.

From what you say, I think you are rightly entitled to receive more realistic compensation for their breach of the DPA.
Your request is not unreasonable.

Why not write back rejecting their goodwill gesture and request their final offer for compensation in this matter.
You could re-iterate your view of adequate compensation which is an amount equivalent to the total interest charges credited to your account.

You could say that should their final offer to resolve this matter is not acceptable to you - then you are prepared to escalate this matter further to obtain a satisfactory level of compensation for their serious breach.

newfoundglory

standupguy wrote: »

You can claim compensation for damage and/or damage and distress caused by the breach of the Data Protection Act.

True, but only when there is also direct financial loss involved.