Data protection annoyance

gatita

This morning I had a telephone call from the telephone company I have a contract with. First they ask to speak to the account holder, I agree I am that person, they then proceed to ask me my date of birth, address, etc etc What IS this inquisition!!!! THEY called ME........ I asked them what they were offering to give/sell me, oh they couldn't possibly tell me as I refused to answer all their questions. I told them to s***f it, I wasn't interested.
All this supposedly in the name of DATA Protection, for heavens sake this nonsense does not exist anywhere else, I am sick to death of it. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Does anyone else get to the point of exploding when this happens, or is it just me?

dmg24

I understand the reasons for data protection, however it does seem a tad silly when they are contacting you.

BTW you don't need to star out the letters in stuff.

fluffnutter

Just ask them not to call you for marketing purposes. I've set all my preferences to 'no marketing' with every company I deal with. No one ever rings me up. Apart from my mum, bless her.

balmk

Imagine if they had rung you, but your son/brother/daughter/friend had answered the phone. They don't ask any security questions, and manage to sell the person that they are speaking to a £50 per month calling plan. You don't become aware of this until a couple of bills down the line, and then ring them to complain that they sold it to someone pretending to be you. I'm sure the question "why didn't you verify that you were talking to the account holder" would come up at some point? Yes, it's annoying, but it's for your own security (and it's the law).

shaun_from_Africa

Yes, it's annoying, but it's for your own security (and it's the law).

But there isn't anything in the DPA that prohibits the salespeople from discussing the products that they are trying to sell. They don't need to ask any security questions for this.

I asked them what they were offering to give/sell me, oh they couldn't possibly tell me as I refused to answer all their questions. I told them to s***f it, I wasn't interested.

Why not give the sales pitch, then if the customer shows an interest and wishes to sign up or change contracts, ask all the security questions needed.

biscit

balmk wrote: »

Imagine if they had rung you, but your son/brother/daughter/friend had answered the phone. They don't ask any security questions, and manage to sell the person that they are speaking to a £50 per month calling plan. You don't become aware of this until a couple of bills down the line, and then ring them to complain that they sold it to someone pretending to be you. I'm sure the question "why didn't you verify that you were talking to the account holder" would come up at some point? Yes, it's annoying, but it's for your own security (and it's the law).

I agree that confirming the identity of the other person is necessary, but it should be proportionate. The procedures are there to protect access to my personal details and accounts. Anything beyond that should not need protection.

For example I shouldn't need to confirm my identity to get info on a company's products or terms and conditions. If I want to know the rate of interest on Super-dooper saver gold, or how many withdrawals I can make with Special limited withdrawal saver Orange, they should be able to tell me that without needing access to any of my personal data.
They should only need to confirm I am who I say I am when they need to access or modify *my* records. They should not need access to my info to clarify some detail about account type X or product type Y.

Similarly they should not need to put me through data protection to tell me about new product Z, they should only need to confirm its me if I decide to buy or open new product Z there and then.

fluffnutter

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

But there isn't anything in the DPA that prohibits the salespeople from discussing the products that they are trying to sell. They don't need to ask any security questions for this.

They're not going to bother going through their endless spiel without the chance of a sale at the end. And for that they need to be confident that they're talking to the account holder.

missile

fluffnutter wrote: »

They're not going to bother going through their endless spiel without the chance of a sale at the end. And for that they need to be confident that they're talking to the account holder.

Yeah right ..... they would rather waste your time than theirs :rotfl:

Fruitcake

balmk wrote: »

Imagine if they had rung you, but your son/brother/daughter/friend had answered the phone. They don't ask any security questions, and manage to sell the person that they are speaking to a £50 per month calling plan. You don't become aware of this until a couple of bills down the line, and then ring them to complain that they sold it to someone pretending to be you. I'm sure the question "why didn't you verify that you were talking to the account holder" would come up at some point? Yes, it's annoying, but it's for your own security (and it's the law).

I think you are missing the point. Why would anybody answer security questions from a stranger you met in the street, met online, came to your front door, or called you on the telephone? Where I live we call that a scam.

If there is a problem with your account, a reputable company will ask you to contact them on a number you look up yourself, on a website, or written contract documentation already sent to you. When my credit card was cloned, the CC company 'phoned me. I refused to confirm any security details as I could not confirm their legitimacy. They simply said, "we suspect your card has been used fraudulently, please 'phone the number on the back of your card." (Well done MBNA for spotting this fraud and dealing with it so quickly.)

If they are trying to sell you something, it is not covered by the Data Protection Act. Since you haven't bought anything or haven't entered into a contract when they initially contact you, there is no electronic data on that particular subject, therefore the DPA does not apply. In other words, it is NOT the law. The DPA only covers exisiting data held on an elecronic system. It does not cover "the ghost of data yet to come."
If you decide you do want to buy something, then you would contact them as above and answer the security questions at that point.

My wife recently received a call from Sky. They would not tell her what the call was about. When I spoke to them they tried to sell me an insurance contract. When I asked them why they wouldn't tell my wife what they wanted, they quoted the DPA. As above, I pointed out that since I didn't already have such a contract it wasn't covered by the DPA. I then told them that if they were not prepared to speak to my wife, I would not speak to them. End of call.

BlueAngelCV

I refuse to give out my details if someone calls me. Yes they need to check who I am but they could also be someone random calling up trying to get access to details etc. If it is something important they will put it in writing.

What bothers me is having to give all my security details to each person I speak to when I get transferred from department to department. Egg are a nightmare for it.

Tigsteroonie

I had a good run-in with NatWest a few years over this. At least I think it was NatWest, there wasn't any way of knowing they were who they said ... They asked me for my security details, I refused as I couldn't confirm their identity. When the conversation stalled, I did suggest that we "exchange" details - they tell me the third letter of my password, I'll tell them the sixth etc. They weren't going for it. When I asked what it was regarding, they said it was a "review call", so not important :rotfl: