Aegon - a bit lax with personal data ?

CaptainSkeptical

Hi - financial organisations constantly remind us to be very careful with our personal data to avoid identity theft and scams.  And rightly so. 

I've got a pension with Aegon and in connection with a transaction I requested, they sent me a form via normal Royal Mail for me to complete and return.  When I opened up the letter I was concerned to find the form quoted my full name, account number, date of birth, National Insurance number, and home address, i.e. a lot of personal data that an identify thief would relish getting their hands on.  Royal Mail are losing a record number of letters and there is a risk that a letter like this could have gone missing in transit and found its way into the hands of a crook.

I lodged a complaint and asked why Aegon thought this was an acceptable way to send such personal data, should they not use a secure online communication system like other financial institutions, or if they couldn't do that, should the form they sent me not just include my name and address and account number and omit my date of birth and NI number. 

And today, approx 2 months later, they replied that they had followed their internal processes so weren't doing anything about it.  The irony is they sent me that brush off reply via secure messaging. It's good to see they have their data security priorities correct