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MSE News: Share your data with consumers, utilities and finance firms told

"Companies are being encouraged to share customer's information under the Government's 'midata' scheme..."
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Share your data with consumers, utilities and finance firms told

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Comments

  • Pincher
    Pincher Posts: 6,552 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I have been ticking NO all these years.

    Now they are going to phrase it like we have to tick YES.

    "Third party" could mean anything, and the law will make it legal for them to sell my BANK info with impunity. The data was "released" legally to HELP other companies so they can "help" me to their "carefully selected" products.
  • Nada666
    Nada666 Posts: 5,004 Forumite
    And for what purpose? How is that supposed to help anyone?
  • matelodave
    matelodave Posts: 8,726 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I am quite happy for me to find out what info they've got about me but I'm totally against any form of data sharing and the last place I'd want all that info is either on my mobile phone or accessible from it.

    I do use on-line banking and check utility bills etc on-line but not on my phone.

    I think it's been pretty well proved that no one out there including (especially?) the government has any idea on how to safeguard or protect your data and the more they have to play about with the worse it will become and it makes it easier to cross references it all as well

    Once they've got it then it becomes a commodity to be sold and traded ( the DVLA with licence & car tax info, Electoral register info being sold to private companies for purposes it was never originally intended for, but it's now a nice little earner for them) It's easy enough for those who shouldn't have access to what's around at the moment without helping them even more.
    Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large numbers
  • aleph_0
    aleph_0 Posts: 539 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Combo Breaker
    Pincher wrote: »
    "Third party" could mean anything, and the law will make it legal for them to sell my BANK info with impunity. The data was "released" legally to HELP other companies so they can "help" me to their "carefully selected" products.

    I'm not sure that's what the ambition is. The article says "consumers will have to give their consent for details to be shared with third parties". In practice, what this should hopefully mean is that you can get your data in a machine-readable format, or you can give a website permission to securely request your data from other companies on a case-by-case basis. So managemyaccounts-lalala.co.uk could then tell you when a bill is due, or what direct debits will come out of your account (e.g. you link it to both your bank data, and your CC data, it will then know what your DD will be and can pencil in the future-dated transaction).

    Or, maybe, you're with British Gas, and are considering switching. You sign in to MSE's cheap energy club, click a button, and share your energy usage data with MSE. Based on this, MSE can then recommend the best tariff for you.
  • G6JPG
    G6JPG Posts: 147 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    For there to be much chance of useful app.s etc. to be developed, the data will have to be available - to the people it relates to - in a consistent format. "Firms have until 6 December to reply, after which the Government will review the responses. By the end of March, the Government will decide whether or not it needs to force firms to share their data with consumers." I can see any such legislation, if it happens, leaving out this important technical detail - so that each data-collecting company will give you data that's in a different format.

    To do this properly, there'd need to be a proper standard format for such data (which is just about possible), and legislation to force companies to supply it in that format (which IMO is highly unlikely).
  • rogerblack
    rogerblack Posts: 9,446 Forumite
    Nada666 wrote: »
    And for what purpose? How is that supposed to help anyone?

    At the moment, I have about 8 bank accounts, across 3 different banks.
    And another 4 credit cards, across 4 providers.

    If I want to get a coherent picture of my enormous wealth at the moment, then I need to remember around 21 different items, enter them all correctly including all of the peculiarities with the different sites.

    Of course - by the time I've actually logged into the last - the first sites have now timed out.

    And I now have - at best - 7 screens open with individual institutions view of me.

    There is no overall balance, no provision for telling the banks in a coherent manner 'yes, I am quite happy to transfer with minimal authentication between any of these accounts'.

    There is no coherent searching - for example I can't show all cheques paid in in 2012, but have to page through each individual provider.

    I cannot have an automatic thing that checks my balance at 11PM the night before a DD, and pokes me saying 'you're not going to have enough money for the power bill in that account unless you do something'.

    I should probably note that two of the online statements I in principle have access to I need to re-setup the details, as I seem to have misremembered something.
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