Passing number to third party

Apologies if this is the wrong section.

Before christmas I started receiving texts from a beauty salon that I had never heard of, let alone used. Texts were quite frequent and annoying. On 16th January I replied Stop to the number. And today I received another text. I've just called and spoken with the manager of the beauty salon and she informed me that they essentially "bought" clients from another salon which I used many years ago. They took over their database and she informed me that they signed a legal document stating all phone numbers on this DB had given permission to receive texts.

I explained to the manager that I had not given any consent, and while the other beauty salon had a right to contact me as I was their customer, the new salon had no right to do so. I also explained that there must be an easy opt out system in place but she explained that the company who run their texting system do not provide this option.

Is this legal? Are companies who shut down allowed to sell your information to other businesses? I would have thought not?

dilallio

Has the first salon gone bust?

AFAIK by law, they have to have an opt out procedure

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/government_in_ireland/national_government/standards_and_accountability/data_protection.html

The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner is responsible for upholding the privacy rights of individuals in relation to the processing of their personal data.
These rights are contained in the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003 (pdf). The Acts state that information about you must be accurate, only made available to those that should have it and only used for specified purposes. You have the right to access personal information relating to you and have any errors corrected or, in some cases, have the information erased.
If your information is being held for the purposes of direct marketing, you can have your details removed.
Data protection rights apply to information held on computer or in manual or paper files.
The Commissioner is appointed by the Government and is independent in the exercise of his or her functions. Individuals who feel their rights are being infringed can complain to the Commissioner. He/she has powers to enforce the provisions of the Act.

convert

I'm pretty sure there was a big issue made of the 'stop' or 'unsubscribe' option which must be given to people who no longer wanted to receive texts and/or emails from a company or organisation. I think there was a relatively prominent advertising campaign undertaken to highlight that a company had to provide an optout or unsubscribe facility (as stated in the relevant quotation provided above)

I've just taken a look at a few emails and texts I've received recently, and each one has an unsubscribe or optout option.

dub45

Give the data protection people a ring they are very helpful.

http://dataprotection.ie/ViewDoc.asp?fn=%2Fdocuments%2Fabout%2FAboutUs%2Ehtm&CatID=1&m=a

seagull

I suspect DPC would be very interested in someone selling on their customer list. Unless the customer details were taken with an explicit warning that they would be passed on to third parties, the fine could well exceed what they were paid for the list.

It would appear that they have gone bust. I'm going to give the data protection guys a call. I know it's probably quite petty but it annoyed me. And the woman's attitude on the phone was very much that she had done nothing wrong.

Cabaal

Deleted User wrote: »

It would appear that they have gone bust. I'm going to give the data protection guys a call. I know it's probably quite petty but it annoyed me. And the woman's attitude on the phone was very much that she had done nothing wrong.

Ignorance is no excuse, its not petty at all its your personal data and you have a right to control how it is used.

Be interested to know what the outcome of this is

MOH

It's common in the privacy statement on many business websites that if the business is taken over, the contact details, etc that you've given go with it.
If the new salon bought over the old place, that might be OK.

If they just bought the database, that's a bit different.

But regardless, once you tell them to stop, they should stop. If not I'd be getting onto the DPC.

seagull

Whatever the legalities of how they acquired the database, there is definitely a requirement that they provide an easy opt out.

I have sent an email off to the DPC so will let you know what they say.

The salon that I had previously used have completely shut down and there is now nothing in its place so I don't think they would have bought the salon but I guess I could be wrong!

We shall see.

BrianD

Did she offer to remove you from their system as a result of you calling?

Just updating on this.

I sent off the email. I was asked for particular details including dates, times, contents of the texts etc which I sent off.

I got an email on Friday saying that they had been in touch with the salon and the salon claim that I made an appointment on the 8th December for a spray tan I had purchased through groupon. The data commissioner asked for proof of this appointment and they emailed me what looks like a receipt. Strange that the receipt had an appointment date of 8th December. This is also the date I got the first text.

I have never bought such a groupon deal. And I have never made such an appointment. The appointment was for 2pm. I was working on the 8th December at 2pm.

So I replied and said that I can categorically state that I made so such apt and bought no such deal. I pointed out how coincidental it was that they were claiming that I made and appointment on the 8th, for the 8th, and began receiving texts on the 8th.

I reminded them that I had been told by the manager that they got my number from the other salon, and that they did not have an obligatory opt out system.

They are now gone back to the salon with these points.

Well over three months to get such a lame response. Ridiculous.

Gillo

Three months is a long time alright, does anyone know what time is allowed by the saloon (in this case) to give a response.

OP, it might be an idea to get onto your manager or HR department and get a copy of the hours you worked for December, forward this to the DPC. Assuming everything you say is true (and I've no reason to doubt you), the saloon are digging themselves a bigger hole by lying to the DPC.

Tbh I'm not going to go to such lengths. My HR department wouldn't have that kind of info anyway, I don't clock in or clock out. But I do know they are digging themselves deep because if I had used a groupon deal they should be able to provide proof of that

RangeR

Deleted User wrote: »

Tbh I'm not going to go to such lengths. My HR department wouldn't have that kind of info anyway, I don't clock in or clock out. But I do know they are digging themselves deep because if I had used a groupon deal they should be able to provide proof of that

I find that you have to follow up with DPC regularly, rather waiting for them to reply. Send them an email requesting update. Quote your DPC reference number.

You may also want to file a complaint with ComReg. They will take your complaint over the phone and take a VERY dim view of this sort of thing. They normally close off my cases within days.

IMHO, they are much more helpful than DPC.