Data Protection Act Help!!!!

Foxy-Stoat_3

Tilt wrote: »

So where's the address bit?

DOH !!! LOL

Tilt

Foxy-Stoat wrote: »

DOH !!! LOL

Name, telephone number, car reg number don't necessarily give the OPs address! DOH!!

Joe_Horner

The driver would be entitled to certain details becaused he has a right to defend himself when accused. God forbid that data protection ever goes so far that that stops being the case!

In this case, he'd definitely be entitled to know where the alleged (as far as the company is concerned) incident happened, and (probably) enough details of the car that he could identify it if there'd been something in your driving that contributed to the incident. I'm not suggesting there was, but the driver is entitled to a "fair hearing" just as much as anyone else - without that anyone could claim anything about anyone else!

Having been told where it happened and what car was involved, it's not difficult to go looking.

So no, I cab't see there being a data protection issue in this situation. There could potentially be a harassment one, except that harassment generally has to occur on two separate occasions. Knocking after the event (and you don't know what his attitude might have been if you had opened the door - he may have come to apologise!) then going away and not returning would never stick as a complaint.

Best to put it down to one of those unpleasant events that inevitably happen now and then in life.

Mr_Toad

It's more likely he saw your car as he passed and decided to keep going anyway. Later when he was told there'd been a complaint he knew exactly what the complaint was about, where it happened and what car was involved.

A quick drive up the street was all it took to find the OPs house.

TradePro

Mr_Toad wrote: »

It's more likely he saw your car as he passed and decided to keep going anyway. Later when he was told there'd been a complaint he knew exactly what the complaint was about, where it happened and what car was involved.

A quick drive up the street was all it took to find the OPs house.

This^

You began by saying you were entering the street where you live, I don't think the driver will have had too much trouble recognising your car.

scotsbob

Driver reversing didn't see you and almost hit you.

You phone company who act quickly to get you insurance payout and when the driver is told by his boss he comes round to apologise personally.

Where is the problem?

TrickyWicky

Foxy-Stoat wrote: »

SIGH back !! LOL

Name, car reg and phone number still doesn't include an address.

Further sigh

@Joe: No the driver IS NOT entitled to be told the personal details of someone else. The company may hold the details and process them for business purposes but they are not allowed to give your details out to anyone who does not require them as part of the business. The business in this case is a complaint and an insurance claim. That means they had no reason to give the driver the ops personal details and yes, the DPA was breached.

I don't see what this will achieve though, suing for this would be incredibly difficult without any form of proof.

Tiddlywinks

OP - what do you hope to achieve?

If you take independent legal action then you will need to demonstrate that you have suffered a loss or damage... have you?

The regulator for the DPA is the Information Commissioner; this site gives background info on how to complain and there is also a helpline for advice and guidance.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/

steve-L

TrickyWicky wrote: »

Name, car reg and phone number still doesn't include an address.

Further sigh

@Joe: No the driver IS NOT entitled to be told the personal details of someone else. The company may hold the details and process them for business purposes but they are not allowed to give your details out to anyone who does not require them as part of the business. The business in this case is a complaint and an insurance claim. That means they had no reason to give the driver the ops personal details and yes, the DPA was breached.

I don't see what this will achieve though, suing for this would be incredibly difficult without any form of proof.

The OP is or is not a customer of the delivery company.
This is kind of irrelevant as the driver didn't visit to deliver.

If they had passed data to the driver from a customer database this MIGHT be a breach depending upon contracts.

DVLA SELLS your information to many third parties (Tesco is one).
Tesco clubcard correlate this with your sales by using ANR to recognise your pate when you park and correlate to your address, how far you travelled and even your credit rating which is also sold to them. This is covered under the contract if you get a clubcard.

The OP's issue is with the behaviour of the driver.... I doubt very much if the OP would have had an issue if the driver turned up the next day with a complimentary hamper, official written apology and a voucher for a hire car company whilst their insurance sorted out the damage.

The company will say that the driver was instructed to go and apologise.

If the OP is looking for compensation which is not unfair then the DPA is probably the wrong TOOL.

Neil1975_2

Thanks for all the feedback…. To clarify the event, the driver stupidly backed out of a blind junction and if I hadn’t of drove my car into the hedge he would certainly of hit me. I have never been a customer of this company so they prior to this incident they would not have had my details. The manager I spoke to did not take my address, he simply took my contact number and reg number as he said it would be passed to their insurers. When the driver called at my property, it was unannounced and the banging on the door didn’t come across as a polite visit, this has been confirmed by a neighbour across the street who in her words said ‘he slammed the truck door closed and marched up my drive’, she also added that he looked extremely p****d off.

Three days after the incident happened I called the company again as I had not heard from them or their insurers, the car I was driving belongs to a friend and I’m the named driver and I didn’t wish to have to sully his clean policy with a claim. Even though the incident was the fault of the wagon driver, those of you that use this site will know that even a non fault claim pushes up the renewal cost.

I finally got a call back from a senior manager of the company who politely asked me if I would give them the opportunity to rectify the situation without the need of escalating it. I emailed him a statement of events detailing what had happened along with pictures of the junction and a picture of my driveway that shows that the car isn’t readily noticeable from the street and that the wagon driver must have crawled round the street looking for my car.

Three weeks and several phone calls later I finally entered correspondence with a lady from their insurers who eventually arranged the funds to have the car repaired. I continued to chase the company itself for an explanation as to why the driver came to my house but after being passed from manager to manager and having several mails ignored I decided to contact my solicitor about the event.

Whilst the incident itself was quite harrowing, it’s the events that followed that have caused me concern. As you’ll appreciate myself and my partner are not happy that after causing a serious incident, the driver was then passed my details so he could then make an unsolicited visit to my home, it’s quite unsettling to think that my youngest daughter could have been home at the time and answered the door. As an example, if you were following a vehicle with a ‘how’s my driving’ sign on the back, and you then phoned that number to complain about the actions of that driver, you would not expect that driver to later turn up at your property. I spent several years working for a parcel company, our policy was that if an incident occurred or a complaint was made you brought the driver back to the depot for a debrief, you did not pass the details of the complainant on to that driver.