Well, there's no point in calling the police, or at least my local(!) Thames
Valley police! Yours may be better, but.....
I tried that last week when a white van stopped outside my house and offered
to sell me a brand new 3 piece leather suite that he "could not take back to
the shop" The Police asked if I was concerned about the noise he made when
he blew his horn, and had no interest at all in his registration mark,
description, or anything else.
-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Karen Waite
Sent: 10 April 2006 09:00
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [data-protection] You're not going to believe this
Dear Colleagues
I thought I'd start our Monday off with a bit of Ridleys "believe it or
not".
I had a knock on my front door last week and opened it to find a very
civilian looking young twenties-something guy with his front teeth missing
(just giving you the flavour). He was holding what looked to be a stack of
flyers in his hand. Home alone with my two young toddlers I was on high
alert anyway. He said he was offering home renovations internally or
externally. Of some interest as we'd been looking for such a business, I
stepped out into the driveway shutting the door and children behind me in
house.
I indicated a cautious interest so I got the big spiel, if a bit of a wet
one, and he immediately asked for all my details so someone could call us
back later that evening. To which I flatly refused. More spiel so I
pointed to a house along the road who had the sort of thing we're looking to
doing, to which he immediately said they couldn't that type of thing. Now,
I started getting a bit sus as it was not a major piece of work at all.
Again he waved his flyer around and asked for my details. Again I refused,
but I reached out and touched one of his flyers to pull of his bundle and
said, "I tell you what, you give me one of these flyers and we'll call your
company ourselves and get some information" to which he pulled them away out
of my hands saying he can't hand the flyers out (!!!).
So I said, right then are you in the phone book, to which he said no as
well. Laughing and smiling the whole time he tried repeatedly to get my
details to which I said no each time and finally "are you trying to tell me
as a company out to sell a product you're not going to give me one of your
flyers, you're not in the phonebook, YET you want me to hand over all my
details so you can "call" me later??? Are you serious???".
To which he replied - and this is what this fine tale has been building up
to dear colleagues - he turned around and actually said to me <you're gonna
love this>: "I know I know, but there are some laws around to sort of
protect information you know and I know of them so I can't give you any
information about our business."
Once my jaw picked up of the ground I snorted and gave him a hard stare and
asked if he would be referring to the Data Protection Act to which he nodded
profusely with another BIG SMILE. I said something back to the affect of,
are you aware that the DPA legislation is for personal information about
individuals and to my knowledge it doesn't concern big business but is there
to protect the civilian.
To which his smile dropped and he said I am obviously a smart lady who is
finding him bit dodgy <to which I raised an eyebrow at him but said
nothing> and said, just for me he'll give me one of his flyers which he
is NOT allowed to do and will probably get into to trouble for, shoved the
flyer into my hand, and flew out the driveway at a mile a minute. I went in
a locked up the house.
Thing is I think he was legit, being Cornwall there is a woeful lack of
professionalism in local businesses and door knocking is common, but I can't
believe that door knocking to drum up business is now putting the homeowner
on the defensive as though WE are invading THEIR privacy!!!
I thought I must share this new twist and interpretation of the law with my
DPA colleagues. Obviously it shows a vulnerability that if a homeowner is
not as aware of the law they would hand over all their personal details
believing this person and the DPA is there to protect big business.
Shiester or legit? Hard to tell. But he lost me when 1) he "couldn't "
give me a flyer 2) insisted he could only take my own personal/property
details 3) not in the phone book yet been "around for years" 4) and badly
spouted the DPA to me.
Welcome to Monday..... forgive the length anything less would have been
misleading.
Karen
Karen Waite
Corporate Records Manager
Cornwall IT Services
Megashed
Royal Cornwall Hospital
Truro. Cornwall. TR1 3LJ
Ph: 01872 254500
Fax: 01872 254508
email: [log in to unmask]
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