Orange keeping customers data 13 years after contract ended

adrianr

Dear all,

Today I received a bill for an Orange mobile phone which was contract ended and disconnected in April 1998 ! Dispite me not having an Orange phone or contract during the last 13 years they sent me a bill for £10.85

I called them on their premium rate number on-hold for 20mins only to find their computer systems have had a glitched and billed hundreds of customers which had active accounts over 10 years ago, and it is a mistake. opps sorry.

I wondered why they still had my details and bank account details 13 years on, data protection act means nothing to them, and they probably are above the law.

How long would you think its necessary for a mobile phone company to retain old customers data, 13 years ???

The Data Protection Act says that information should be kept for no longer than is necessary. The Act does not specify what a ‘necessary’ period should be for particular information. Each case would be considered on its own merits. If an organisation is obliged to retain data for a given length of time under any other laws, this should be taken into consideration.
For example, financial institutes may have to keep some information for up to six years in accordance with the Financial Services Authority regulations. A sole trader, however, may not need to keep information for longer than a month."

Guys_Dad

If this was a genuine amount outstanding 10 years ago, then their financial records may have had that stored on their files until it was time expired (6 years).

Then, on top, if they have to keep financial records for another 6 years, then that makes 12 !

However, I suspect they simply haven't cleansed/archived their old records and if you want to stir it up, contact the Information Commissioner and send him copies of the evidence.

TwistedPsycho

Surely the debt would be statute barred anyway?

Guys_Dad

TwistedPsycho wrote: »

Surely the debt would be statute barred anyway?

Yes. But Financial records need to be kept for a period of 6 years for Inland Revenue purposes. If OP's data was kept for 6 years until statute barred and then written off, Orange can argue that for Inland Revenue purposes they need to keep the information for 6 years after the w/o.

But why they might want to keep data that old on an active customer file, beats me.

NFH

Orange could argue that they have a need to keep the data indefinitely, because they could choose not to give you another contract ever again while they consider that you owe them money, no matter how many years have passed. A company can choose its customers.

adrianr

thanks for the replies... I did not owe any money, the account was settled in full in 1998. This was an administration error and the statement said I owe £10.85 but the balance was £0.00 I was surprised they retained my details for all this time.

NFH

adrianr wrote: »

thanks for the replies... I did not owe any money, the account was settled in full in 1998. This was an administration error and the statement said I owe £10.85 but the balance was £0.00 I was surprised they retained my details for all this time.

Then equally they might want to retain your payment history in order to give you preferential treatment when you return to Orange in future. I still think it's reasonable for a company to keep records indefinitely given that previous customers might resurface in future.