Personal Dat Retention

James

Why won't Currys remove my personal information from their Delivery Database?


From the ICO - Data Retention, Article 5:


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


I purchased a fridge/freezer from Currys on Saturday. I mentioned to the Sales Assistant I didn't what my personal information retained in any database. He said it would only go on the delivery database and to contact the Head Office next week.


I called Currys today and explained I wanted my personal data removed as the goods had been delivered. At first they claimed they had no information on me in their databases. After further questioning they confirmed my personal information is on their delivery database and would be retained for 3 months. They refused to remove my personal data and told me to complain to Trading Standards.


I called the Information Commissioner's Office who pointed me towards article 5 (above).


The bottom line is their appears to be little anyone can do to have their personal data removed from databases.


I'm thinking a law change that makes you the owner of your own data. IMHO you should be informed if data is required to be held, how long it will be held for and then securely removed.


Any ideas?

wealdroam

James wrote: »

Why won't Currys remove my personal information from their Delivery Database?


From the ICO - Data Retention, Article 5:


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


I purchased a fridge/freezer from Currys on Saturday. I mentioned to the Sales Assistant I didn't what my personal information retained in any database. He said it would only go on the delivery database and to contact the Head Office next week.


I called Currys today and explained I wanted my personal data removed as the goods had been delivered. At first they claimed they had no information on me in their databases. After further questioning they confirmed my personal information is on their delivery database and would be retained for 3 months. They refused to remove my personal data and told me to complain to Trading Standards.


I called the Information Commissioner's Office who pointed me towards article 5 (above).


The bottom line is their appears to be little anyone can do to have their personal data removed from databases.


I'm thinking a law change that makes you the owner of your own data. IMHO you should be informed if data is required to be held, how long it will be held for and then securely removed.


Any ideas?

Why do you want that data removed before those three months have passed?
Can I suggest that your data will have been deleted before any crusade you may start is likely to have progressed very far.

Speak to your MP about any law change you are proposing.
Good luck with that.

shaun_from_Africa

The important words from article 5 are "for longer than is necessary".
Currys may wish to keep your address for a number of legitimate reasons including audit purposes, knowing where certain appliances are in the event of product recalls or other safety related issues or simply having a detailed record of where the delivery driver was on a certain day in case someone claims that they were involved in a traffic accident with their lorry.

SuperHan

They may have also mislead you with the 3 month thing.

Currys can search through historic purchase records going back at least 5 or 6 years (probably longer) by using your name and address, so this information isn't routinely deleted.

However, they consider it necessary that they do that to help meet their requirements under SoGA (ie you can take in proof of purchase and they can trace the sale), so it is reasonable and compliant with the law that they do that.

It's highly unlikely that any law will change to make you own your data. The sale of data is BIG business and there would probably be enough lobbying from that industry to prevent it happening. Plus, given that the majority of the population don't care, it's unlikely to be worth anyone's time.

bris

It's not illegal to hold your data and they can hold it as long as they want. What is illegal is not holding it securely or sharing your data without your permission.

boo_star

bris wrote: »

It's not illegal to hold your data and they can hold it as long as they want. What is illegal is not holding it securely or sharing your data without your permission.

They would need to be able to justify holding onto it if they were doing so for more than 6 years.

daytona0

These type of phone calls are the ones which customer service agents dread

CoolHotCold

boo_star wrote: »

They would need to be able to justify holding onto it if they were doing so for more than 6 years.

Pretty easy to justify it.

"Product Safety Recall Information", or "SOGA has different timeframes in Scotland".

In reality, most people are fine with having large ticket appliances stored in a database with their Name, Address, DOP, Receipt Number, store purchased from, price paid, if it makes the their life easier in not having to prove Proof of Purchase anytime something goes wrong.

Having details on hand make it easy for resolving warranty, repairs and product recalls for safety issues.

boo_star

CoolHotCold wrote: »

Pretty easy to justify it.

"Product Safety Recall Information", or "SOGA has different timeframes in Scotland".

In reality, most people are fine with having large ticket appliances stored in a database with their Name, Address, DOP, Receipt Number, store purchased from, price paid, if it makes the their life easier in not having to prove Proof of Purchase anytime something goes wrong.

Having details on hand make it easy for resolving warranty, repairs and product recalls for safety issues.

Their liability ends after 6 years.

There's no good reason for a retailer to retain details for over six years, unless they want to retain a "bad" customer database, which wouldn't apply to the OP, or to market to them (which isn't a good reason if they opt out.)

Futuristic

Charge backs, fraud etc would be another reason to keep your data on file. Regardless as stated for audit purposes your data will be with them in their accounts for 6 years

WannaBLoaded

James wrote: »

Any ideas?

Yes. Get a life.