Mobile directory made legal threats to get personal details

Surely...

...swapping personal details like this breaks the Data Protection Act.

If I receive a message from them, I'll be making a DPA complaint. If we all do so, we can sink the bastards and get the law tightened up.

Can we just...

... use the 1188000 service to get put through to the private mobile number of the managing director of Connectivity and get them to make sure we are removed from their list straight away? After all if the MD believes in their product they will have all their details in the system so we can contact them.

Virgin Mobile

Have just told me that they did not sell their user data to connectivbastardy. Now all I need to hear is that they are scrapping any work with phuckorm.

Removing numbers

I just rang the 0800 number from my landline and had both my better halfs' number and my own removed.

The chap with whom I spoke was very understanding of the privacy issues and as wel as assuring me about the possible "marketing" use of the numbers voiced his own concerns about the service - do be honest he did not believe the "service" will survive.

The two numbers have been marked as ex-directory but not expunged as removal would lead to the reinstatement during the next phase of db update.

The reason for the four-week delay in "removal" is that connectivity are only paying a third party for a four-weekly update to the db; they are not performing the actions themselves, instead farming it out to that (un-named) third party for sanitisation.

I have additionally written to phonepayplus, given them all the details of my complaint and if I find either of our numbers on there in future I have given notice of legal action, not limited to, but including, misuse of private information, possibly illegally obtained private information, other DPA abuses and extortion based upon the fact that it will cost the user to opt-out of the "service" given their standard removal instructions.

(il)legal threats

Errr, the spamflingers might be entitled to REQUEST information, that does not mean the ISP's are obliged to hand it over.

If they are too thick to understand the meaning of request then they surely cannot be trusted with private information. I can't see them being any better than politicians or (un)civil servants!

Do *not* call 118800 to opt out

This is their way of collecting valid mobile numbers - they have no intention of opting you out, they are using this purely to collect numbers.

Remind you of somebody?

I only ask because what we have here is a company with a business model that will only work if they adopt sneaky, underhand practices and then try to take the moral high ground when these practices are called into question.

Are they perhaps related to Phorm? We should be told.

Here are their own words - my correspondence

Note: I didn't use my own name :-). I start from the premise of not beating people up if I want to have information, they too could make mistakes (basic algo; assume c*ckup before evil, unless it's MS).

They may have been agressive in data acquisition according to the article, but at least their communication is polite, swift and to the point.

My email to them:

===============

I would like to know the route by which I can (a) establish if I am present in this directory and (b) -if true- establish the route by which you have acquired that information.

I don't doubt you accept data in good faith, but my many years with Data Protection have shown me that my data rights are far from managed well - so badly that I started to consult on the matter. You can email me at xxx

[Side note: this is one of the DPA flaws - you get contacted by someone, and when you ask how they got your data you're told they have "bought a list" - there appears to be no decent route to force such a company to indicate where they got the data from so you can go after the bastards that resell your info without permission. But I digress]

Their answer:

===============

Dear Mr xxx

Thank you very much from your comments, we do only buy data in good faith and carry out very stringent audits on all of our data suppliers. The quickest way for you to find out if we have you on our database would to do a search on yourself (this will be free of charge - you are charge nothing at this point).

If you refer to our privacy policy page on our website full details of where to write to and the information needed to enable you to find out where we obtained your number are there.

Please ignore the £10.00 fee request, this in no longer applicable.

We have to ask you for a certain amount of information to be able to track back where your number was obtained. We can assure you this information is not used for any other purpose apart from that.

By the end of today we will have a facility available on our website so that you can remove yourself from the directory.

Kind regards

[I have removed the name]

Phone directories?

What use are phone directories for individuals anyway? when was the last time you looked someone up in one?

For them to work it would need to publish your home address too. Talk about stalkers charter.

Thank you Orange :)

Thank you Orange :)