Soft searches on credit file

Rmkc

My car insurance is due for renewal in January but I have not started looking yet. Today I got an email from my credit report saying a soft search had been done on my account. This was a car insurance company called Marshmallow. I have never heard of them before this. I contacted the company who then proceeded to ask for many of my personal details so they could apparently look into it. I didn't give my details and she quoted me Article 6 of the General Data Protection act saying they have the authority to conduct a soft search where they have legitimate reasons to do so and this would happen from a quote request. Are they actually allowed to do this as I haven't requested any quotes so what they have quoted me with the Act is actually them saying they have broken it? I understand once you do searches for insurance they can do this but surely it's a breach of data protection for random companies to be accessing my personal information and credit score when I haven't even looked for insurance.

dunstonh

Are they actually allowed to do this as I haven't requested any quotes 

Yes.

At some point, you have used a comparison site or quote service where you agreed in their T&C for firms to provide quotes and be supplied information that you input to obtain the quote.    Firms will do soft checks because a number of them set their pricing based on that information.     

 I understand once you do searches for insurance they can do this but surely it's a breach of data protection for random companies to be accessing my personal information and credit score when I haven't even looked for insurance.

It won't be random.  You have given permission in the past (almost certainly via a comparison site).