Is customer data unsafe when companies go bust
By Darren Cronian on Monday, January 11th, 2010

Tonight I was reading an article on Tnooz, asking if PricewaterhouseCoopers can sell FlyGlobespan customer data? I am absolutely gobsmacked that they are selling off consumers data as part of the administration, would you be happy knowing that your data is going to be sold to another company?

Is customer data unsafe when companies go bust

Privacy poliicy exempt in administration

When a company goes into administration does this mean that the data that the company has for each consumer can be made so freely available. I have managed to take a screenshot of the privacy policy of fallen airline FlyGlobespan and it states quite clearly that no data will be sold to any third parties.

Data protection act issues addressed

Surely the data protection act protects from our data to be sold on? I wonder what the data protection commissioner has to say about this. The article on Tnooz states that PricewaterhouseCoopers are satisfied that any data protection issues have been addressed.

My private data is exactly that. Private

As a consumer I would be enraged if I received any marketing material from a company that I have not subscribed to or used their services. You can imagine the type of information available; credit and debit cards, home addresses, telephone numbers, passenger information.

Worse still does this data include data like passport numbers? Aren’t we supposed to be living in a world where we take security seriously? I want to know what data is included that is going to be sold, and if I was a customer I would want the administrators to delete my data.

Freedom of information act

Under the Freedom of information act consumers are able to find out what data companies have held. I will try and contact someone at PricewaterhouseCoopers tomorrow. Many consumers have left comments on the administration of FlyGlobespan so it will be interesting to read what you think of this.

Your thoughts on the security of customer data

Why would administrators sell customer data on so freely? What if this information got in to the wrong hands? I would like to know your thoughts on this issue, would you like your details shared, does anyone know is this fits within the data protection act, or does it depend on what data is given.


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13 responses to “Is customer data unsafe when companies go bust”

Jane | 12 January, 2010 at 12:12 am

Thank you for all the info here! I cannot believe that they will actually be allowed to do this! If Flyglobespan say that they would never give any info to other “companies” etc then the info should NOT be passed on. Is this even legal?? As you say, more and more people are taking security seriously and trying to protect all our data. It makes me angry to think that they will get away with this. Id also like to know what the Administrators will gain in this! It just beggars belief and is not justifiable in any way!!

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Caitlin | 12 January, 2010 at 4:42 am

Good for you for getting a screen shot of the privacy policy.

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Darren Cronian | 12 January, 2010 at 7:14 am

@ Jane

I have emailed and tweeted a message to PricewaterhouseCoopers so hopefully we’ll receive a response in the comments (or email) on what data is been sold on. They are very open on Twitter so they should be open to consumers here too.

@ Caitlin

Just a little snooping around to find the screenshot. The site has been taken down but they are tools out there where you can find cached/archived versions of websites. Would you like your data to be sold like this?

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Darren Cronian | 12 January, 2010 at 7:33 am

Update:

On Tnooz I have just noticed an update, posted this morning. Apparently, the data shared is data where the customer has given them permission to share it. I am not convinced myself, as it states quite clearly in the privacy policy that data will not be sold, and at what point of the booking process was this permission given. Can any customers remember ticking a box when booking to say that they would be happy giving this information?

Hopefully, I’ll get some clarification on this later today.

I think this opens up more discussion on how secure data is when a company goes into administration. When you have a privacy policy, does this mean nothing?

There’s also an article on the selling of customer databases on TTG for those interested in reading more.

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Arantxa Ros | 12 January, 2010 at 9:52 am

HI all

I believe those data are the ones registered at loyalty programmes, frequent flyer,or similar, in those cases the customer allows or refuses by marking or not the specific box the company sets to use the data provided.

On the other hand, now I’m talking representing GF Hotels in Tenerife, I can tell you that at Globespan situation nobody gave us any contact details of customers with affected bookings, and it would have been so helpful where those customers can reach us at any time and we’ll be more than happy to study each particular affected booking to offer the best solution.

Obviously, if Globespan would have given us these customers contact details our service would have been better, many wouldn’t have had to cancel holidays….. but I guess data protection rules also applied in these case of incidents

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Alastair McKenzie | 12 January, 2010 at 10:41 am

Darren, I thought this might be an interesting question (and bang on subject) for the ABTA/TravelSupermarket live travel advise web-thingy I’m hosting on my Travel-Lists site on 20th Jan ( http://bit.ly/891FJV ), so I’ve posted it to them (ABTA spokesman, Sean Tipton, and TravelSupermarket.com’s , Bob Atkinson). Sorry for the plug, but it might be interesting to hear ABTA’s take on it.

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Nick | 12 January, 2010 at 12:11 pm

Darren

We booked customers on flyglobespan and there was a marketing tick box. It is standard when a company goes into administration to sell this list to a similar company. EG. Jewelers to Jewelers or Airline to Airline

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Darren Cronian | 12 January, 2010 at 12:24 pm

@ Nick

Fair enough on the opting in tickbox, but the privacy policy states that they will not sell your personal data to third parties. Even if you opt in to marketing information, surely the privacy policy still applies?

I do not think that consumer data should be sold on to third parties when the company or airline goes into administration. I feel quite strongly about this because there is a severe lack of responsibility on securing data in this country.

I am not suggesting that this data that PCW is stored unsafe, but I think generally this is a big issue if more companies go into administration and our personal data is being sent to companies we may not want it to be sent to. Even if I have opted in, I have opted in to that companies information, not someone elses.

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Erica | 12 January, 2010 at 4:15 pm

I must agree with you on this, Darrren. Consumer data should not be shared or sold on to other parties. And, like you wrote above, even if people have ticked some box when booking a trip, I doubt everyone would like to give out this information. I wonder if it’s possible for consumers to ‘opt out’ afterwards if they’re not happy with having their data shared.

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Alastair McKenzie | 12 January, 2010 at 6:01 pm

I talked to Derek Moore, Chairman AITO, about this issue this afternoon. He was interested said he might raise it at the next AITO committee meeting. It’s worth keeping an eye on from AITO’s point of view, because if it becomes more frequent and contentious as the recession continues, it could become a policy issue for AITO members.

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Darren Cronian | 12 January, 2010 at 7:42 pm

@ Alastair

Thanks for the interesting update. Guess we’ll watch this space. I had never realised in the past that administrators could sell customer data in this way, even if it is opted in. I realise that customer data has it’s value but we live at a time with issues like identity fraud etc.

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Jane | 12 January, 2010 at 11:34 pm

Thanks for keeping us all posted. Some interesting comments being made. Im just so glad we got our money back – considering they took it out the same day as they announced receivership! Speak soon and thanks again :)

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Caitlin | 13 January, 2010 at 7:34 am

@Darren No, I would not and in this case it seems like there would be a strong legal challenge if the administrator did sell the data.

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