talktalk have changed marketing preferences on my account

scottishperson2

Talktalk have again changed (in the last week) the marketing preferences on my account to allow marketing calls from them.

Complaints already in with the information commissioner and dido harding.

Last time this occured HLC team, via Charles Dunston, promised no more marketing calls would occur, that was a lie.

Now a clear breach of DPA.

Hope this company gets prosecuted

bod1467

There are several threads on the TTMF about this very issue. It was a "glitch" apparently. (Funny how glitches never work in the customer's favour though, eh?)

scottishperson2

bod1467 wrote: »

There are several threads on the TTMF about this very issue. It was a "glitch" apparently. (Funny how glitches never work in the customer's favour though, eh?)

Thanks for the info.

Hopefully this "glitch" will cost them dearly.

I have had so many complaints into the DPA about this company and there lack of respect for the law and privacy. Even the intervention of Dunston failed to resolve the continous marketing calls.

Update

At least Dido is following Dunstons example and replying quickly to emails. I'll see what HLC team have to say about this little breach of the law.

TalkTalk

Hi scottishperson2,


An issue was identified with some customers having no marketing preference specified at the point of sale (such as field sales and store sign ups where no check box was selected, or no confirmation gained on a sales call) which is being investgated at present.

If you have rasied this with the CEO's Office an agent will contact you in due course in regards to resolving the issue.

Regards

Mark
TalkTalk Online Community Department

bod1467

Nicely glossing over the fact that several TTMF members are reporting that their selections have been CHANGED to opt them IN to marketing contact, when they had previously CHOSEN (in their My Account pages) to NOT receive it. What you posted bears no relevance to this thread and the issue reported.

scottishperson2

TalkTalk_Company_Representative wrote: »

An issue was identified with some customers having no marketing preference specified at the point of sale (such as field sales and store sign ups where no check box was selected, or no confirmation gained on a sales call) which is being investgated at present.

350,000 customers I think you'll find.

As stated by bod1467 your information is incorrect as well.

Its long standing customers whos preferences were originally set to opting out of Marketing.

This Field


Marketing preferences TalkTalk


Was changed to opt-in.


Heres the list of Data Protection Principles,

http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_guide/the_principles.aspx

Care to pick the ones your company has breached.

1. Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and, in particular, shall not be processed unless-

(a) at least one of the conditions in Schedule 2 is met, and
(b) in the case of sensitive personal data, at least one of the conditions in Schedule 3 is also met.



2. Personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purposes, and shall not be further processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose or those purposes.

3. Personal data shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are processed.

4. Personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.

5. Personal data processed for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.

6. Personal data shall be processed in accordance with the rights of data subjects under this Act.

7. Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data.

8. Personal data shall not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data.



I've highlighted the ones I feel you should take note of.

Now, care to explain, in as much detail as you can, how this happened.

bod1467

Where does your 350,000 figure come from? If that's the total number of TT customers you can't presume that they have all been affected.

But the rest of your post is spot on.

scottishperson2

bod1467 wrote: »

Where does your 350,000 figure come from? If that's the total number of TT customers you can't presume that they have all been affected.

But the rest of your post is spot on.

High Level Complaints team said 350k records had been changed due to a glitch. Talktalk has (and I'll stand corrected on this) over 4 million customers.

macman

According to Wikipedia they had 4.12 million customers as long ago as 2009.

bod1467

So 8.5% of their customers were affected. Not to be sniffed at.

And that's the figure they were prepared to make public. So I wonder what the real figure was?

scottishperson2

Talktalk response at 6.39 last evening

"Hi All,

A number of forum users have reported a message relating to marketing preferences in My Account. Following reports of this the forum team have been working with the relevant departments to establish the cause of this message. For clarity the message states:

“We’re sorry but we haven’t got an up to date record of your marketing preferences, please click the Edit button and make sure you are happy with your options.”

This message is displayed because we do not currently have records for marketing preference for a number of customers. These accounts may have previously indicated that they had opted out of marketing by displaying crosses in the marketing preferences field, however, this may not have been the case because it was set this way as the default option. The message in My Account is currently being reviewed and will hopefully be updated soon to give a little more information and clarity about why we need you to take action.

TalkTalk is introducing a more accurate way of displaying the information we hold around marketing preferences. Accounts that see this message have never requested to opt out and the crosses were only displayed as this was set to default when no preferences were selected.

We apologise for any confusion this message may have caused. We want to ensure that those wishing to opt out of marketing do not receive unwanted contact therefore if you see this message please ensure you submit your marketing preferences.

Cheers
Em x"

So, even though the box for no marketing had been set to tick, it was ignored and was seen as being set to allow marketing. Then what caused the tick to disappear on the system, and why wasn't it reset to stop marketing.