JISCMail - DATA-PROTECTION Archives

My mother is in hospital and has been on life support. Naturally she is unable to communicate. As a matter of prudence I called her credit card company, Barclaycard, and her bank, Barclays, to let each of them know that her accounts could not be operated normally during the next few weeks.

The reactions were stunningly different

Barclaycard said at once that it would put a note on her file and understand if payments were not made

Barclays told me that "The Data Protection Act prevents us from making any notes on a customer's file" And went on to tell me about fraud that could be committed if they did so.

That was in India, of course. When I insisted on being transferred to a call centre in the UK the person there simply reiterated the statement and refused point blank to refer the call upwards. She did, in the end, acknowledge that the statement about the DPA was not valid and that they were stating "Bank Policy".

So why do people get trained to hide behind the Data Protection Act?

And why can they not "pin" a simple note to a file, EVEN if they then disregard it? "Policy" so often means that Customer Service goes out of the window.

However, I am emotionally involved with this. Perhaps someone who is not emotionally involved would analyse the DP implications of the different stances of Barclaycard and of Barclays?

Tim Trent - Consultant
Direct: +44(0)1344 392644 Mobile:+44(0)7710 126618
Personal blog: http://timtrent.blogspot.com/
See also http://complianceandprivacy.com
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http://www.marketingimprovement.com

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