Misleading FAQ

[frisp]

Whilst searching Experian for the down loadable form (still haven't found it) to send away for my statutory CR I came accross the following in their FAQs.

Can I prevent Experian from holding information about me?

No, we have a legal right to hold information about people.

Credit reference agencies help lenders process credit applications. If we did not hold information about you it would be much harder for you to get credit. A good credit record makes it easier for you to get credit.

I challenged this to Mr H by email

To my knowledge you have no 'legal right' to hold information about people, more custom & practice. Please provide me with the reference to the legislation or remove this mis-information and kindly confirm you have done so.

His response

The information from our web-site is not incorrect and we will not be removing it. I would refer you to the fact that we hold information obtained from public record sources, such as the Electoral Roll and the Register of County Court Judgments.

My response

Please provide the reference that gives you the 'legal right' to hold consumer data, I'm not saying you can't hold or share info in the the public domain, in my view the statement is misleading, you are not a Gov't agency, you have no legal powers and in fact you are a business making money from the storage & sharing of data.

His response

Thank you for your e-mail received 30 June 2008.

When you say 'consumer data' I am presuming you are referring to the credit account information we hold. As I have already advised this is generally obtained with your consent. With regards to defaulted account data disclosure is qualified under the Tournier principles. (Tournier v National Provincial and Union Bank of England (1924) 1 KB 461, CA).

The case of Tournier v National Provincial and Union Bank of England set out four areas where a bank can legally disclose information about its customer. These principles still hold good today and are referred to in Section 11 of the Banking Code.

The statement is not misleading as we do have a legal right to hold certain information types. Therefore an individual can not prevent us from holding information in their name.

Any thoughts, my beef is that the quote is misleading and I think this is intentional.

[Guest]

Re: Misleading FAQ

The four principles Mr H refers too from the case of Tournier v National Provincial and Union Bank of England [1924] are as follows.

• Compulsion of law, for example a court order under s.29 of the Data Protection Act 1998
• Public interest (see Pharaon and Others v Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA (in liquidation) [1998])
• Interests of the bank. This would occur, for instance, in proceedings by the bank against a customer claiming repayment of an overdraft, where the bank must state details of the amount of the overdraft on the face of a summons which is, of course, a public document
• Express or implied consent of the customer. Express consent should be in writing stating specifically the purpose for which the consent to make disclosure has been given. An example of implied consent is a reference a banker might be requested to provide to a third party on behalf of the customer

Given that the case concerned the banker's duty of confidentiality to the customer I fail to see why Mr H believes the Tournier principles apply to Experian because they are not a bank.

Therefore I would tend to agree with you that this statement is deliberately misleading. I would ask him to set out quite clearly, in order that it can be open to scrutiny, the lawful reasons by reference to statute or any Common Law case that grants Experian the right to continue to hold your data.

Finally, English law says that whatever is not expressly disallowed is allowed. Therefore, the Data Protection Act 1998 does not say that information cannot be held or collected, but it does place restrictions on the conduct of the holders of personal information and as far as I am aware, consumers have powerful rights regarding their personal information and how it is processed and stored.

[frisp]

Re: Misleading FAQ

Thanks for the info. I get quite vexed with the CRAs and the ICO who are completely useless in sorting out disputes.

MAC