The legality of a water company sharing your data with a CRA when you've never signed a contract

TurningANewLeaf

So to cut a long story short, a water company shared my late payments and defaults with a CRA.



Thing is, I never signed any contract with the water company, in fact I'd never made any contact with them whatsoever, so never even gave them my name or any other details. I've since got the water company to remove all defaults and negative markers (for other reasons, not related to this) BUT I'm still curious...


How can they be on the right side of GDPR law here, sharing my data with a third party when I'd never given them any permission or even made contact with them?


I contacted the ICO about this, but by the time they rang me back up I'd sorted things out with the water company to my satisfaction (who'd removed everything negative), so there was no point taking this any further.



Now some people might imagine that "well you used their services, so therefore there was an implied contract in place".


But if that principle is true, if someone for examples visits my website, merely by visiting my website (and therefore using my services) I could turn around and say "well we had an implied contract which was laid out in our T&C therefore I'm entitled to do whatever I want with their personal data". I mean that's not gonna fly!


This isn't about whether I was right or wrong to not pay my bills, I accepted I was in the wrong not paying my bills and repaid them in full, but this is about the principles of the law, and sharing my data with 3rd parties without my permission.

Ben8282

Could you please explain how, if you had never had any contact with this company, had never given them you name or other details and therefore presumably never requested them to supply you with water, they were able to issue bills in your name and report the conduct of your account?

[Deleted User]

By using the services they provide to you, you’re also agreeing to any terms and conditions bound by the use of that service - and if that includes sharing data with CRA’s etc. then so be it.

If you wanted to do that with your website you absolutely could - you can put a disclaimer on stating “By visiting my website you agree that we will store your data (IP address, usernames, email addresses etc) and share them with third-parties at our discretion”.

You’re clutching at straws here and you won’t get anywhere fast - be grateful they removed the (factually correct) defaults and payment markers.

powerful_Rogue

If you want to turn a new leaf, then accept your responsibilities. You used the water, you pay for it.


Would you rather they cut your water off completely?

TurningANewLeaf

Ben8282 wrote: »

Could you please explain how, if you had never had any contact with this company, had never given them you name or other details and therefore presumably never requested them to supply you with water, they were able to issue bills in your name and report the conduct of your account?

Presumably my landlord/letting agent must have given them my details. I wasn't even on the electoral roll at the time, as I was trying to avoid giving anyone chasing me for debts any indication of where I lived. (I have cleaned up my act now).


When you move into a property the water is always still running, no one comes and cuts off the supply when the property is empty, so you don't have to request they supply you with water.

[Deleted User]

TurningANewLeaf wrote: »

Presumably my landlord/letting agent must have given them my details. I wasn't even on the electoral roll at the time, as I was trying to avoid giving anyone chasing me for debts any indication of where I lived. (I have cleaned up my act now).


When you move into a property the water is always still running, no one comes and cuts off the supply when the property is empty, so you don't have to request they supply you with water.

Really?

You acted like that trying to hide and then expect people to remove negative markers when your attitude is so whimsical?

Whilst they may not cut the supply off (they can’t by law) that have to bill someone, and that someone is the person living there.

And there’s other ways of tracing people, whether you register you names for bills or on the ER or not.

TurningANewLeaf

!!! wrote: »

By using the services they provide to you, you’re also agreeing to any terms and conditions bound by the use of that service - and if that includes sharing data with CRA’s etc. then so be it.

If you wanted to do that with your website you absolutely could - you can put a disclaimer on stating “By visiting my website you agree that we will store your data (IP address, usernames, email addresses etc) and share them with third-parties at our discretion”.

Okay, I didn't know that. That's actually helpful for once Gary.


Although my next question is what the hell is the point in the GDPR laws, apart from having to make you tick annoying boxes when you visit a new site, if you can do whatever you want with the data anyway with a small disclaimer?

!!! wrote: »

You’re clutching at straws here and you won’t get anywhere fast - be grateful they removed the (factually correct) defaults and payment markers.

I am very grateful and hugely relieved. Caught some very luck breaks and was persistent!

[Deleted User]

GDPR isn’t a get out of jail free card.

You are, in essence, being billed on a credit basis as you are using the water then paying for what you’ve used afterwards.

So technically it’s being operated as a credit account.

This is also why other utility providers report to CRA’s.

TurningANewLeaf

powerful_Rogue wrote: »

If you want to turn a new leaf, then accept your responsibilities. You used the water, you pay for it.


Would you rather they cut your water off completely?

I have turned over a new leaf, bang on top of everything these days, a model citizen.

TurningANewLeaf

!!! wrote: »

Really?

You acted like that trying to hide and then expect people to remove negative markers when your attitude is so whimsical?

Whilst they may not cut the supply off (they can’t by law) that have to bill someone, and that someone is the person living there.

And there’s other ways of tracing people, whether you register you names for bills or on the ER or not.

I did what I had to do at the time, in a period of crisis you do what you can. It seemed rational at the time.


But now I'm out the other side, I've been making things right, and doing whatever I can to clean up my credit rating. Again, it is the rational thing to do in my current circumstances. Whether my credit rating should look worse than it currently does is up for debate, I probably deserve to still have the defaults on there, but I'd argue that if anyone was to give me a mortgage tomorrow (just got one last thing to get overturned on my credit report before that happens) then they could do a lot worse than me! They don't call me 'turned over a new leaf' for nothing.


How else though can they find out where you are if the only people who know where you are is the council (for council tax reasons) and your landlord, neither of which report to any CRA?

[Deleted User]

You don’t have a credit rating - so there’s little point trying to fix something that doesn’t exist.

There’s plenty of other ways to trace people down - a simple google search will yield the answers.