Confused.com comparison site.

Tristar_2

If, like me, you are paranoid about the info companies store on you, do not use this site. Here is a quote from their terms and conditions:-

If you would like us to remove any personal information from our records, then please write to our Data Protection Manager at Inspop.com Limited, Friary House, Greyfriars Road, Cardiff CF10 3AE or email us at [EMAIL="dataprotection@confused.com"]dataprotection@confused.com[/EMAIL]. We will make all reasonable efforts to delete your information from our files if it is deemed appropriate.

Note the IF!

geewhiz

Sounds fair enough to me, don't see what the problem is ?

raskazz

Tristar wrote: »

If, like me, you are paranoid about the info companies store on you, do not use this site. Here is a quote from their terms and conditions:-

If you would like us to remove any personal information from our records, then please write to our Data Protection Manager at Inspop.com Limited, Friary House, Greyfriars Road, Cardiff CF10 3AE or email us at [EMAIL="dataprotection@confused.com"]dataprotection@confused.com[/EMAIL]. We will make all reasonable efforts to delete your information from our files if it is deemed appropriate.

Note the IF!

That's fair enough. It's a common misconception that a Data Subject has the right to force a Data Holder to delete all the information that they hold on them - they don't.

For example, say a user of confused.com is under investigation by the Police who have put in a Section 29 request for the data - then it's entirely right that they would not deem it appropriate to erase all the data on request.

dunstonh

You cannot insist on a company removing data that is required for regulatory reasons or audit reasons.

Plus, since the endowment mis-selling issues, where the vast majority of endowment payouts were not due to bad advice but because of missing or incomplete documentation, firms have realised that they cannot destroy records after 6 years or so because they may be needed many years after the event. So typically, a lot of stuff is held indefinitly and is allowed to be.

Tristar_2

Just found a similar, even worse, one on the MoneySupermarket site as follows:

You grant us a world-wide, royalty-free, non-terminable licence to use, keep, share, save, collect, copy, distribute, publish and transmit such data in any manner.

I just strongly object to the attitude that because I wish to buy something from them, they can use my details for ever. It is Big Brother gone mad.

dunstonh

Tristar wrote: »

Just found a similar, even worse, one on the MoneySupermarket site as follows:

You grant us a world-wide, royalty-free, non-terminable licence to use, keep, share, save, collect, copy, distribute, publish and transmit such data in any manner.

I just strongly object to the attitude that because I wish to buy something from them, they can use my details for ever. It is Big Brother gone mad.

Select the opt out box then.

Tristar_2

dunstonh wrote: »

Select the opt out box then.

Only opt out is to not agree to their terms and conditions, in which case you cannot use their service. The trouble is, once you have got to this point in the form filling, you have lost the will to live, so most of us will tick anything to finish the process, which is exactly why they can get away with such outrageous statements. We should all object to our data being freely distributed worldwide, with no rights to ask for it to be deleted.

dunstonh

with no rights to ask for it to be deleted.

This doesnt just apply to them. It applies to every single financial product you have. For liability and protection reasons a fair bit of data needs to be retained. Indeed, there is actually less data that can be removed in most cases than has to be kept.

Tristar_2

dunstonh wrote: »

This doesnt just apply to them. It applies to every single financial product you have. For liability and protection reasons a fair bit of data needs to be retained. Indeed, there is actually less data that can be removed in most cases than has to be kept.

This is still not a reason for us to accept it blindly. I repeat, we should all complain at this blanket authority to distribute our personal information worldwide for their benefit. Call me an old cynic, but I suspect that these so-called 'rules' are abused to give companies the opportunity to maximise their income by selling our information to others.