ERUDIO student loans help

BorderReiver14

anna2007 wrote: »

Erudio have said the same on their website, the second and third 'recently asked questions', although each answer contradicts the other somewhat:

http://www.erudiostudentloans.co.uk/faqs/default.htm

Although according to the Privacy Policy on their website, the very act of visiting Erudio's website means we are consenting to them disclosing our data to anyone and everyone they want to, so they don't need our informed consent via the FPN anyway:

"By visiting https://www.erudiostudentloans.co.uk you are accepting and consenting to the practices described in this policy" and then:

"Disclosing your information

Where applicable, we may disclose your personal information to any member of our group. This includes, where applicable, our subsidiaries, our holding company and its other subsidiaries (as such terms are defined in section 1159 of the Companies Act 2006) (if any).

We may share your information with selected third parties including:

business partners, suppliers and sub-contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with them or you.
analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our site.

We may also disclose your personal information to selected third parties if:

we sell any or all of our business and/or our assets to a third party;we are legally required to disclose your information or in order to enforce or apply our terms of use;
to protect the rights, property, or safety of Erudio Student Loans Limited, our customers, or others; and/orto assist fraud protection and minimise credit risk".

http://www.erudiostudentloans.co.uk/tools/privacy-policy.htm

Not quite sure how the dodgy chancers will make that one stick

Makes the blood boil but then how could they do that if you visit their site via a public computer and don't give any details, or have a friend look stuff up or use Tor?

rizla_king

anna2007 wrote: »

Although according to the Privacy Policy on their website, the very act of visiting Erudio's website means we are consenting to them disclosing our data to anyone and everyone they want to, so they don't need our informed consent via the FPN anyway:

No. That only applies to data that is collected by your visit to their website.

Not all your data they hold in any form.

Most websites have that in their privacy policy for their site, but only applies to the site.

Forever

My dispute regarding the FOS's decision on Erudio being able to pass our details on to CRAs (for pre-1998 contracts) has now been passed from an adjudicator to an ombudsman for consideration.

For the ombudsman's consideration, I have also listed the arguments anna2007 gave earlier regarding fairness and what is reasonable, plus the fact that we were all promised that the loans would not negatively effect us so it is case of mis-selling, and again, the legal arguments Anthony provided in one of his postings last weekend.

Fingers crossed for a better decision this time.

BorderReiver14

Fingers crossed they get back to you in a timely manner! Keep up the fight!

BorderReiver14

I am sorry if someone has already posted the following link but judging by this FOI it seems BIS may have (although doubtful as they are no archive for times gone by) literature dating to student loans in the 90s.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/icr_student_loan_literature_2?unfold=1

If we are to follow a mis-selling line I am guessing Anthony and a court would want literature rather than our word we were told 'these loans are safe, won't affect your future etc etc'
I have boxes of old uni papers and I'm sure there must be something!

anna2007

rizla_king wrote: »

No. That only applies to data that is collected by your visit to their website.

Not all your data they hold in any form.

Most websites have that in their privacy policy for their site, but only applies to the site.

I realise that's the usual purpose of these privacy notices, but what data do Erudio collect via their website? There's no online account management, they don't even have an online contact form.

The terms clearly state that by visiting the site you're agreeing to their terms, you don't have to be giving them data. The privacy policy also says "We are dedicated to safeguarding and protecting your privacy when visiting our website or communicating electronically with us", so you don't even have to be visiting the website, the privacy policy applies if you communicate electronically outside of the website.

@ BorderReiver14 I doubt if their systems would be sophisticated enough to know if you'd used the site, but if you'd referred to their website or linked to it in any correspondence (which I've done plenty of in my complaints), they might try and catch you out that way? It would be a complete nonsense if they did, as you say just tell them you didn't access the site and a friend/family sent you the link or text.

Probably reading far too much into it, I'm suspicious of anything and everything Erudio does

rizla_king

anna2007 wrote: »

Probably reading far too much into it, I'm suspicious of anything and everything Erudio does

You are. The data they collect is anything search the site for using the search box on it, the details of the pages on the site you viewed, the IP address you visited with, your browser, any information gained from site tracking technology or cookies etc. Under the law all that counts as personal data.

anna2007

BorderReiver14 wrote: »

I am sorry if someone has already posted the following link but judging by this FOI it seems BIS may have (although doubtful as they are no archive for times gone by) literature dating to student loans in the 90s.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/icr_student_loan_literature_2?unfold=1

If we are to follow a mis-selling line I am guessing Anthony and a court would want literature rather than our word we were told 'these loans are safe, won't affect your future etc etc'
I have boxes of old uni papers and I'm sure there must be something!

I made an FOI request some time ago for the literature, details here:

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/information_on_mortgage_style_st#incoming-553913

They did send a fair amount of leaflets/guides (by post, as it was literature going back to the early 1990's), I trawled through all of them, but unfortunately couldn't see anything useful to support a misselling claim.

There was an information leaflet for prospective students, issued before the student loans system was introduced (it's mentioned in the Hansard documents when the legislation was going through Parliament). I don't think anyone's got a hold of that yet, but if there's going to be anything useful at all, it's most likely in that leaflet, when they were trying to 'sell' the new loans scheme?

Forever

anna2007 wrote: »

I realise that's the usual purpose of these privacy notices, but what data do Erudio collect via their website? There's no online account management, they don't even have an online contact form.

The terms clearly state that by visiting the site you're agreeing to their terms, you don't have to be giving them data. The privacy policy also says "We are dedicated to safeguarding and protecting your privacy when visiting our website or communicating electronically with us", so you don't even have to be visiting the website, the privacy policy applies if you communicate electronically outside of the website.

@ BorderReiver14 I doubt if their systems would be sophisticated enough to know if you'd used the site, but if you'd referred to their website or linked to it in any correspondence (which I've done plenty of in my complaints), they might try and catch you out that way? It would be a complete nonsense if they did, as you say just tell them you didn't access the site and a friend/family sent you the link or text.

Probably reading far too much into it, I'm suspicious of anything and everything Erudio does

As for accessing Erudio's site, I am sure that you are worrying needlessly.

I can't recall any logging in facilities on Erudio's site, so web analytics at their end is likely only to show your IP address, your location (i.e your city or nearest web server city), date + time you visited, the browser you were using, your operating system etc. Web analytics can also show links that link to their site, and how many people have landed on their site from those links.

But not your specific data of who you are.

The purpose of gaining this information is for website monitoring.

This type of information may also be stored in cookies in your web browser (you'll have to check their site to see if they do this as they have to tell you). However, you can easily delete any cookies in your browser too.

I hope this gives some peace of mind

Edit: I see Rizla King beat me with a response

rizla_king

Forever wrote: »

As for accessing Erudio's site, I am sure that you are worrying needlessly.

I can't recall any logging in facilities on Erudio's site, so web analytics at their end is likely only to show your IP address, your location (i.e your city or nearest web server city), date + time you visited, the browser you were using, your operating system etc. Web analytics can also show links that link to their site, and how many people have landed on their site from those links.

But not your specific data of who you are.

The purpose of gaining this information is for website monitoring.

This type of information may also be stored in cookies in your web browser (you'll have to check their site to see if they do this as they have to tell you). However, you can easily delete any cookies in your browser too.

I hope this gives some peace of mind

Yes, that is the sort of data the website privacy policy refers to.