Doreen,
Have you seen www.192.com ? The company you mention should have asked for
your colleagues house number to narrow the search. Bingo, all they have to
do then is work out whether they're talking to a man or a woman and apply
the relevant salutation.
192.com is pretty scary. Name, address, telephone number etc. Oh yes and a
handy little street map just in case the person trying to find you wants to
pay a personal visit. Perhaps 192 would like to publish data on when your
house will be empty as well! ;->
I would suggest that the company you mention is probably using a similar
data set gleaned from the electoral roll. This will not be resolved until
you are allowed to opt out of the 'for sale' register next year. But I have
been told that 192 get the printed version of the register (full verion
available in libraries, even after new legislation) and send it to India to
be keyed into a database (this is done twice to reduce errors).
Regards
Paul Lightowlers (Lead Business Analyst),
Teignbridge District Council,
Forde House,
Newton Abbot,
England,
TQ12 4XX
Tel. (01626) 361101 Fax. (01626) 334620
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-----Original Message-----
From: Broom, Doreen [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 16 November 2000 14:09
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Use of Postcodes
All
A colleague of mine had ordered some goods from a company - his order was
taking longer than he had anticipated. He phoned the company up today -
they asked him his postcode which he related to them. Anyway, the company
said "Are you Mr X" to which he said no and relayed his own name. The
person the company named was in fact my colleague's next door neighbour who
in fact had recently died so I suppose you could say that it is not a breach
of the DP Act as it only relates to living individuals. Surely this should
be tightened up as a postcode covers 6 addresses and you can find out
people's private business. The company should really have asked him his
surname...In this instance it was not about a living individual but this
sort of thing must happen all the time.
Anyone else got any similar stories?
Doreen Broom
Data Administrator
Scottish Borders Council
Council HQ
Newtown St.Boswells
Melrose
Borders TD6 0SA
Tel: 01835 824000
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