I have been trying, so far in vain, to have my
name and address removed from the following
sites. (I have opted out of the full electoral roll.)
b4usearch.com, eroll.co.uk, tracesmart.co.uk
b4usearch do offer an 'remove my record' button,
but they require me to supply my home phone,
mobile phone and email address before I can
submit that request. All the fields are
compulsory - why? and what if I don't have a
mobile phone? They do, however, supply a postal
address on their website, so I have written to them.
Tracesmart and eroll both refuse to comply with
email requests. Tracesmart say they insist on
hard copy requests on the grounds that they need
to know that I am who I say I am. But if I've
moved house since I last appeared on the full
electoral roll, how can a letter from my new address confirm that?
The Act does not specify, anyway, what form the
request to cease processing must take - it simply
requires that it be in writing.
My main complaint with these last two sites,
however, is that they offer no advice on how to
have your data removed -- indeed the sites seem
to imply that the only thing to do is make sure
you opt out of the electoral roll next time! I
clicked on the Tracesmart 'Live help' button and this is what ensued:
You are now chatting with 'Tracesmart Team'
Tracesmart Team: Your through to Live Assistance - How can I help?
you: How do I remove my name from your website
Tracesmart Team: If you wish to establish whether
your personal details are contained within our
database, you may process a subject access
request under the Data Protection Act 1998 by
writing to the Data Protection Compliance Officer here.
Tracesmart Team: http://www.tracesmart.co.uk/privacy policy
Tracesmart Team: An official fee of £10.00 should
be enclosed made payable to Tracesmart Limited.
Tracesmart Team: Please note that if you are on
the edited Electoral Roll, only under exceptional
circumstances will records be removed. We will
consider all removal requests from the Tracesmart
Register, dependant on the ultimate source of the
information. For example, individuals holding UK
directorships are not normally removed as this is
a publicly available dataset.
I know this is a rant - and I should point out
that a request to 192.com (by email) resulted in
removal of my details within 24 hours -- which is how it should be.
OK, I feel better now.
Alison
-
Alison Aiton
Business Improvements
Butts Wynd
University of St Andrews
Tel: 01334 463528
email: [log in to unmask]
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