Child Data Protection / Debt Collection Agency

[jonstapleton]

Hello! I am in the middle of a dispute, aren't we all, with a legal firm chasing an invoice from a Private Parking firm. I am not worried about this. What does concern me is when I spoke to them on the phone and they asked me to confirm the email address they had on file, they quoted my 12 year old daughter's private email address!!! I was stunned and furious that a third party should be holding a confidential piece of information about a child on their files / computers! I have no idea how this has happened, and they haven't either - apart from blaming it all on the tracing process. I have two different email addresses - both in my name - which are commonly associated with my home address. For them to end up with a child's address which is never used in public forums or, indeed, to make online purchases, has shocked me beyond words!!! Any advice on who I should be complaining to and on what grounds would be appreciated!

[R0b]

Hello

Whilst I appreciate you might be stunned and furious that they have your daughter's email address on file, I think you may also have to account for the fact that neither the tracing agent nor the parking company is likely to know that the email address belonged to your 12 year old daughter.

Generally tracing agents would investigate and utilise public records such as the electoral roll or information obtained via credit reference agencies to trace your whereabouts as well as other databases that they may be subscribed to.

Based on your email I am assuming that the parking company has instructed a tracing company to find your whereabouts perhaps to chase you up on the outstanding invoice or in preparation of issuing legal proceedings. I suspect what has happened is the tracing agency may have provided a report which contained information not just belonging to you but who you may be associated with. Although you say the email is private and are assuming it has never been used publicly, we seem to forget how much data we give away and it may be entirely plausible that the email was scraped from a public record or obtained via a third party where consent may have been given (perhaps by your daughter, yourself or a partner/wife?) to be passed on to third parties.

The key point here is that all information obtained should have been collected in a lawful and ethical manner. I have no doubt some tracing agents bend those rules if not break them but going back to your question, you will need to write to the the parking company, explain the situation and seek an detailed explanation as to how the tracing agency they used and how and where that email address was found.

If you are not happy with their response then you could make a subject access request both for yourself and your child though you will need a signed letter by her consenting to releasing her personal information (if there is any), unless she does not have the capacity to do so or does not understand i.e. mental incapacity.

I'm not saying that you would, but I would caution against writing a snotty email to them. I find in a lot of these circumstances, people tend to use capitalised words which are underlined or are in bold etc. and it just isn't professional nor will you be taken seriously by the other side.

Keep it polite and express your frustration and anger but don't do it in a manner I mentioned above as you may end up with your letters in front of someone at the ICO or a judge if it got that far.


Just tagging Amethyst des8 ostell for any further input

[jonstapleton]

Thank you for that advice.

[des8]

Do keep in mind R0b's caution about how you express yourself in your letter
It is more than likely that neither the tracing agent, nor the company you are dealing with, knew that email address belonged to your daughter.

You say that the address has not been used in a public forum, nor to make purchases online.

However if it has been used at all (and one must suppose it has been used) it will be out there on the internet somewhere.
Can you be positive your daughter hasn't used it on social media? or that none of her friends have used it?
Email addresses are harvested, and then lists sold on.
Even a search of Google may throw it up.