BT number witheld facility not applicable to 0800!

PACGU

Can any one relate to this please?
I have the number with-held facility on my BT home phone package and have had it for years now. However when I rang a freephone number which I use from time to time I was greeted with a very nice 'Hello Mr PACGU';) before I had uttered a word. I rang BT to enquire only to be told that yes this is the case with 0800 numbers. I asked whether this was relayed to customers in order that they were aware of the limitations of the service, thinking that it may be one that I had missed, only to be told and I quote, ' you need'nt worry as all companies have to comply with data protection and cannot pass your personal details on to any third party'!! Now I may need to be excused a little flippancy here but I really dont think that they had fully understood my question do you? As I said to the operative, whatever the reasons for this the customers surely have a right to be aware of the situation.
Hopefully a few more will now know but I'm still rather quite annoyed as, for example, when I wish for my elderly mother to be aware that's its me calling I have to key in the 1470 overide number!

*MF*

Hi ...

Interesting! Particularly perhaps what you were told, namely " you need'nt worry as all companies have to comply with data protection and cannot pass your personal details on to any third party'!!

On the assumption - at the outset - that only you and your telecom provider know who you are and your personal details - it begs the question as to who passed on your personal details, not just to ANY third party but apparently to ALL third parties.

Wonder if OFCOM know about this practice?

Old_Git

My phone nunber is also witheld but doesn't the person or company with the 0800 number have to pay for the phone call .That being the case I think its fair they see who is calling .

PACGU

That is one point of view Old Git and one which could be debated. But the point here is that the customer should be made aware of the limitations within this facility offered, yes? Thereby subscribers to the service could as far as possible excercise their discresion as to whether they utilise the freephone service offered by these companies or not; bearing in mind that not all companies list alternative land line numbers.
In my view this rather makes a mockery of having the with-held facility and also any regstration with the TPS in order to avert cold callers for example.
In the true order of thing this is not a major consideration that said there is definately a point of principle here.

bunking_off

There is no such limitation; if this report is true, a telecoms provider (not BT) is breaking the General Conditions which govern their right to provider communications services, and a BT customer service assistant requires urgent "re-educating".

I'd be interested to hear the 0800 number involved.

The system of passing the calling number is called CLI, Calling Line Identity. Regardless of you having your CLI with-held, it's actually passed through all of the telecoms networks involved in a given call. What happens when you with-hold your number is that special indicators are passed in the signalling which instructs the terminating communications provider not to release the number to the called party because you've indicated that you don't wish your personal data to be released.

(For information, the number is passed through the networks in order to tie the parts of the call together for accounting purposes, and for things such as 999 and malicious call tracing).

In the UK, who is paying for the call doesn't make any difference to the principle that you can control what happens to your personal data. Note this isn't the case in some countries such as the USA...to cover this when calls with with-held CLIs are sent there, the information is removed altogether as it leaves the UK.

If your CLI is with-held, assuming BT haven't fouled up and misconfigured hence not set the CLI restriction indicators, then the terminating provider is incorrectly releasing the number. I work in telecoms regulation, and this would be considered a serious breach. As it happens, in this case it may just be a minor irritation that the called company involved knew your name, but the called company could equally be someone that then sold your number to a 3rd party.

You should call BT again to complain. They are in breach of Data Protection legislation because they are the Data Controller, passing your information to the terminating provider as a Data Processor. It is BT's responsibility to make sure your personal data isn't mis-used, and they do this via the contract with the terminating provider. BT customer services need to get a fault raised so the terminating provider can be challenged. If I was the originating network and the terminating wasn't co-operative, I wouldn't hesitate in reporting them to Ofcom.