Vision Direct - SMS texts not meant for me with links to personal customer information

Aylesbury_Duck

Mark__H said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

How much are you after?

If that's meant to be funny - it's not
If it's meant to be serious - then it's just offensive
I guard my personal details closely, hence I don't want my mobile number on somebody else's account.
I've asked the company concerned twice to amend their customer's personal information, without success.
I could just ignore the texts but that goes against the grain.
I could block the number but my mobile number is still on a record where it shouldn't be.   
Not sure how else I can explain this. 

It was serious.  Not sure how it's offensive, but that seems to be the fashionable response to anything with which one disagrees nowadays, when there is plenty going on to be genuinely offended by.

What do you actually want?  You've been given practical advice on how to stop it but it "goes against the grain" for some reason, so the logical conclusion is that you're after something else. 

dinglebert

KatrinaWaves said:

Your mobile number without any other corresponding details is just an 11 digit number. It is not personal information, any more than your date of birth, or your address. It is random data with nothing tied to it. 

if you blocked the number nothing would happen, at all. 

That is incorrect.  It is considered personally identifiable information and is a breach of DPA 2018.  With a date of birth and address you can identify the person concerned.  Just the same as an email is personally identifiable as is a car number plate.

davidmcn

dinglebert said:

KatrinaWaves said:

Your mobile number without any other corresponding details is just an 11 digit number. It is not personal information, any more than your date of birth, or your address. It is random data with nothing tied to it. 

if you blocked the number nothing would happen, at all. 

That is incorrect.  It is considered personally identifiable information and is a breach of DPA 2018.  With a date of birth and address you can identify the person concerned.

Yes, but in this case they don't have any of the OP's other information. It is (incorrect) personal information which they're holding in relation to their customer, and it's the customer who's got cause to complain - if the OP bothers to point that out to them.

dinglebert

davidmcn said:

dinglebert said:

KatrinaWaves said:

Your mobile number without any other corresponding details is just an 11 digit number. It is not personal information, any more than your date of birth, or your address. It is random data with nothing tied to it. 

if you blocked the number nothing would happen, at all. 

That is incorrect.  It is considered personally identifiable information and is a breach of DPA 2018.  With a date of birth and address you can identify the person concerned.

Yes, but in this case they don't have any of the OP's other information. It is (incorrect) personal information which they're holding in relation to their customer, and it's the customer who's got cause to complain - if the OP bothers to point that out to them.

If it were me and I had already told them twice to remove my personal information from their files then I would just report them to ICO.

Mark__H

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Mark__H said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

How much are you after?

If that's meant to be funny - it's not
If it's meant to be serious - then it's just offensive
I guard my personal details closely, hence I don't want my mobile number on somebody else's account.
I've asked the company concerned twice to amend their customer's personal information, without success.
I could just ignore the texts but that goes against the grain.
I could block the number but my mobile number is still on a record where it shouldn't be.   
Not sure how else I can explain this. 

It was serious.  Not sure how it's offensive, but that seems to be the fashionable response to anything with which one disagrees nowadays, when there is plenty going on to be genuinely offended by.

What do you actually want?  You've been given practical advice on how to stop it but it "goes against the grain" for some reason, so the logical conclusion is that you're after something else. 

Companies (and people) make mistakes, that's just life. However, we are defined by how those mistakes are rectified.
I've advised a Company twice that they hold incorrect information and yet they still see fit to send me messages which allow access to somebody else's personal details. I find that just wrong.
You suggest I'm looking to make financial gain from this error and yet you're "not sure how it's offensive".  Then maybe we have a different moral compass! 
Aside from which, it's not my personal information that's been compromised, so your statement makes no sense.

I have been sent a link this morning to the website of the Information Commissioner's Office which appears at first glance to be what I was looking for following my original post.    
Matter closed. 

Mark__H

PS  - thank you dinglebert.
I think I was typing my last message at the same time as you were posting about referring to the ICO. 
 

born_again

dinglebert said:

KatrinaWaves said:

Your mobile number without any other corresponding details is just an 11 digit number. It is not personal information, any more than your date of birth, or your address. It is random data with nothing tied to it. 

if you blocked the number nothing would happen, at all. 

That is incorrect.  It is considered personally identifiable information and is a breach of DPA 2018.  With a date of birth and address you can identify the person concerned.  Just the same as an email is personally identifiable as is a car number plate.

Except the only person that has done anything wrong (breeched GDPR) is the OP in clicking on the link, knowing it was not meant for them. Even with the best interests in mind.

OP said they had contacted the co twice & they had done nothing. How do they know that? It could be they delete the no, contact the customer who once again enters the wrong number. Maybe it was the customers old number?

Blocking the number is really the best option.

George_Michael

born_again said:

Except the only person that has done anything wrong (breeched GDPR) is the OP in clicking on the link, knowing it was not meant for them. Even with the best interests in mind.

If you are a private individual and are not registered or acting as a data controller then you are not legally bound by the GDPR so the OP has not breached the regulations.

KatrinaWaves

dinglebert said:

KatrinaWaves said:

Your mobile number without any other corresponding details is just an 11 digit number. It is not personal information, any more than your date of birth, or your address. It is random data with nothing tied to it. 

if you blocked the number nothing would happen, at all. 

That is incorrect.  It is considered personally identifiable information and is a breach of DPA 2018.  With a date of birth and address you can identify the person concerned.  Just the same as an email is personally identifiable as is a car number plate.

okay: 07896345765

How is that personally identifiable? It’s not.

Let’s try 12/04/1983. Is that personally identifiable? No.

How about 6 Long Street, York. Is that personally identifiable? No.

Add a name into a few of those and sure, but the info by itself is NOT personally identifiable. I just made up all those details. You can do nothing with them. You could write a random letter to that fake address or text that random number, but not gonna get anyone anywhere. 

mikb

Mark__H said:

KatrinaWaves said:

So despite not being a customer you clicked on links? That’s a sure fire way to get viruses and scammed never mind anything else. 

 

1. I clicked on the links as the text messages have all come from the same number and as per my original comments, I had comfort from previous conversations with Vision Direct that they were text messages from a genuine source.

Warning: This is not actually sound logic. Scammers rely on that assumption to get suckers to click on links (smishing).

Scammers are known to spoof the outgoing number for text messages to be the "genuine number" so that your phone helpfully identifies the fake text as part of a genuine previous conversation you had with your bank/your utility company/phone provider/the guvvermint.