Privacy, Data Protection etc?

[stevensfo]

Sorry for the Friday rant, but I've been trying to contact a very old friend who took early retirement as a lecturer a few years ago. I think he has moved and none of his phones work. The woman who answered the phone at the reception of his old college was polite but explained that although she'd known him, she could not give any information about him, due to 'Data Protection'. Not even how many years he'd been gone, nor if he still lived in the same town close by. Not an email address. Nothing. Zilch!

It wasn't always like this. I still remember years ago having a friendly natter with a school secretary about what some of my old teachers were up to. No harm done and no shock-horror headlines in the press.

I heard recently that installation of some smart devices require your name and address, some shops try to force you to hand over your email address and as for banks, well, if I can't provide my inside leg measurement, blood group and source of funds for the Sherbert Fountain I bought in 1971, then all my accounts may be closed.

Anyone else have the impression that this Privacy business is becoming rather one-sided?

Steve - off for some valium and blood pressure tablets!

[kempiejon]

This does feel reasonable to me. That lady doesn't know you nor your purpose.
In a previous life I worked in commercial investigations. I was astonished and concerned at how much information, personal, financial or confidential could extracted with the right approach. I told friends and relations to watch out for plausible people calling, they might well not be what they claimed. Made me the paranoiac I am today.

[stevensfo]

This does feel reasonable to me. That lady doesn't know you nor your purpose.
In a previous life I worked in commercial investigations. I was astonished and concerned at how much information, personal, financial or confidential could extracted with the right approach. I told friends and relations to watch out for plausible people calling, they might well not be what they claimed. Made me the paranoiac I am today.

I agree. But I was asking only for a contact email/number or simply to pass on a message. It cannot be above the capability of an organisation to have some way of allowing me to contact a person or just to pass on a message, surely?

For example, when people retire from our place, they usually leave their contact details for friends and ex-colleagues, and a separate email for any person looking for them.

Steve PS Must dash. My bank is now asking for all email addresses going back to 1965!

[kempiejon]

I agree. But I was asking only for a contact email/number or simply to pass on a message. It cannot be above the capability of an organisation to have some way of allowing me to contact a person or just to pass on a message, surely?

Have I misunderstood you. Were you asking the college to pass your details on to their ex-employer if they still had any contact information? Allowing your ex-colleague the chance to contact you or not with no breach of their GDPR obligations?

If not they'd still be offering confidential details of their employee to an unknown caller. Am I wrong to think that most of us wouldn't want confidential information held by an ex employer or for example a bank or local council to be offered to someone phoning up purporting to be an old chum. Sounds like a good way to start collecting bits of information for nefarious purposes. Perhaps if the lady you spoke to has such details and understood your predicament she could be encouraged to pass your details to the missing chum?

[Dod101]

Sorry for the Friday rant, but I've been trying to contact a very old friend who took early retirement as a lecturer a few years ago. I think he has moved and none of his phones work. The woman who answered the phone at the reception of his old college was polite but explained that although she'd known him, she could not give any information about him, due to 'Data Protection'. Not even how many years he'd been gone, nor if he still lived in the same town close by. Not an email address. Nothing. Zilch!

It wasn't always like this. I still remember years ago having a friendly natter with a school secretary about what some of my old teachers were up to. No harm done and no shock-horror headlines in the press.

I heard recently that installation of some smart devices require your name and address, some shops try to force you to hand over your email address and as for banks, well, if I can't provide my inside leg measurement, blood group and source of funds for the Sherbert Fountain I bought in 1971, then all my accounts may be closed.

Anyone else have the impression that this Privacy business is becoming rather one-sided?

Steve - off for some valium and blood pressure tablets!

Why did you not leave your email address and ask if the college could pass it on? I would object to my previous employer giving out my contact details to anyone who asked.

Dod

[UncleEbenezer]

That kind of basic data protection has existed since before we had the phrase "data protection".

The usual workaround is to write something to the person you're looking for, and ask your contact (such as the woman who answered the phone) to forward your letter. Such requests usually work, if the contact you're trying is indeed in touch with the target.

[bungeejumper]

Having spent most of my career in the print and news business, there are many ways of getting this sort of information, but if I told you what they were I'd have to kill you.

Some street-legal ways to start, however. Find out whether he's on LinkedIn, which would offer you an avenue for a contact. Find out whether he's a company director, or ever has been, which would give you some leads. Google his last email address and any phone numbers, including especially his former mobile if you've got it. (Everyone except dodgy builders seems to hang onto those numbers.)

Try and remember his middle name, or his wife's name, and google those. Did he have a favourite hobby, and was it based in the town where he lived? Unusual names make it easier

Beyond that, you're into the dark arts. I'd give you Piers Morgan's contact details, but for some reason I can't seem to find them. That's a joke, by the way.

BJ

[stevensfo]

I agree. But I was asking only for a contact email/number or simply to pass on a message. It cannot be above the capability of an organisation to have some way of allowing me to contact a person or just to pass on a message, surely?

Have I misunderstood you. Were you asking the college to pass your details on to their ex-employer if they still had any contact information? Allowing your ex-colleague the chance to contact you or not with no breach of their GDPR obligations?

If not they'd still be offering confidential details of their employee to an unknown caller. Am I wrong to think that most of us wouldn't want confidential information held by an ex employer or for example a bank or local council to be offered to someone phoning up purporting to be an old chum. Sounds like a good way to start collecting bits of information for nefarious purposes. Perhaps if the lady you spoke to has such details and understood your predicament she could be encouraged to pass your details to the missing chum?

Sorry, I wasn't very clear. I understood her reasoning perfectly and asked if I could at least get a message to him.

No, because he didn't work there any more! If he was still working, I could have simply asked to be put through or leave a message.

She knew him but still wouldn't pass on a simple message. Maybe it's the law, or people are misinterpreting the rules? I don't know.

Steve

[stevensfo]

Sorry for the Friday rant, but I've been trying to contact a very old friend who took early retirement as a lecturer a few years ago. I think he has moved and none of his phones work. The woman who answered the phone at the reception of his old college was polite but explained that although she'd known him, she could not give any information about him, due to 'Data Protection'. Not even how many years he'd been gone, nor if he still lived in the same town close by. Not an email address. Nothing. Zilch!

It wasn't always like this. I still remember years ago having a friendly natter with a school secretary about what some of my old teachers were up to. No harm done and no shock-horror headlines in the press.

I heard recently that installation of some smart devices require your name and address, some shops try to force you to hand over your email address and as for banks, well, if I can't provide my inside leg measurement, blood group and source of funds for the Sherbert Fountain I bought in 1971, then all my accounts may be closed.

Anyone else have the impression that this Privacy business is becoming rather one-sided?

Steve - off for some valium and blood pressure tablets!

Why did you not leave your email address and ask if the college could pass it on? I would object to my previous employer giving out my contact details to anyone who asked.

Dod

Actually, not a bad idea. Thanks! I can send them an email and ask them to pass it on.

'Dear Reggie. Long time no see. Just asked that nice bit of skirt to pass this onto you and she better or she's going to the fishes like the last one. Just to say we're getting the gang back together and need a driver and someone who's good wiv their fists. Anyway, fanks for the money from the college pension fund. Maureen's still livin' it up on the Costa Brava. See ya soon, Knuckles.'

Or something like that.

Steve

[Urbandreamer]

She knew him but still wouldn't pass on a simple message. Maybe it's the law, or people are misinterpreting the rules? I don't know.

Steve

It's Elf & safety gone mad!

No seriously! I remember charity shops stopping selling knitting needles for health and safety reasons. A friend tried to buy a Mattock in a garden center to be told that it was against the law. The same week that the supermarket was selling hand axes!

People claim that the rule/law is whatever suits them.

The idea of a letter to HR, possibly containing a couple of stamped envelopes, sounds the best bet.
Alternatively if you worked there you could see about dropping in and seeing if anyone has contact details.

I exchanged email addresses with a number of others when we each retired. I'm still in contact with people who continue to work in the same place.

Ps, you might try facebook. Many people wind up with an account to communicate with family members. The downside is that you might get others hunting you down.

[kempiejon]

Actually, not a bad idea. Thanks! I can send them an email and ask them to pass it on.

'Dear Reggie. Long time no see. Just asked that nice bit of skirt to pass this onto you and she better or she's going to the fishes like the last one. Just to say we're getting the gang back together and need a driver and someone who's good wiv their fists. Anyway, fanks for the money from the college pension fund. Maureen's still livin' it up on the Costa Brava. See ya soon, Knuckles.'

Or something like that.

Steve

Perhaps he's changed all his contact details he knows you've got, moved and left the employer to get away from you?

Seriously when I left my last job I severed all contacts with the organisation, asked not to be contacted by them and left details not to offer a reference cept a legal minimum nor forward mail or pass my details. Everyone I wanted to stay in contact I already had.

[stevensfo]

Actually, not a bad idea. Thanks! I can send them an email and ask them to pass it on.

'Dear Reggie. Long time no see. Just asked that nice bit of skirt to pass this onto you and she better or she's going to the fishes like the last one. Just to say we're getting the gang back together and need a driver and someone who's good wiv their fists. Anyway, fanks for the money from the college pension fund. Maureen's still livin' it up on the Costa Brava. See ya soon, Knuckles.'

Or something like that.

Steve

Perhaps he's changed all his contact details he knows you've got, moved and left the employer to get away from you?

Seriously when I left my last job I severed all contacts with the organisation, asked not to be contacted by them and left details not to offer a reference cept a legal minimum nor forward mail or pass my details. Everyone I wanted to stay in contact I already had.

Nice thought. I will probably do something similar when I leave - if they ever let me!

Re. my old friend, we're not connected in any professional way whatsoever, apart from going to the same school. He's just lousy at keeping in touch.

Or maybe he never forgave me for beating him at conkers when we were 12?

Steve

[dionaeamuscipula]

Sorry for the Friday rant, but I've been trying to contact a very old friend who took early retirement as a lecturer a few years ago. I think he has moved and none of his phones work. The woman who answered the phone at the reception of his old college was polite but explained that although she'd known him, she could not give any information about him, due to 'Data Protection'. Not even how many years he'd been gone, nor if he still lived in the same town close by. Not an email address. Nothing. Zilch!

It wasn't always like this. I still remember years ago having a friendly natter with a school secretary about what some of my old teachers were up to. No harm done and no shock-horror headlines in the press.

I heard recently that installation of some smart devices require your name and address, some shops try to force you to hand over your email address and as for banks, well, if I can't provide my inside leg measurement, blood group and source of funds for the Sherbert Fountain I bought in 1971, then all my accounts may be closed.

Anyone else have the impression that this Privacy business is becoming rather one-sided?

Steve - off for some valium and blood pressure tablets!

Unless they have specific consent, organisations have to have a legitimate purpose for processing (including giving out) personal information, and letting old friends get back in contact isn't a legitimate purpose for most orgnisations. So she is correct not to give anything out.

DM

[Lootman]

some shops try to force you to hand over your email address

At least with shops I find that whilst refusing can cause a problem or delay, you can just give them a fake number or email.

As for not being able to find someone from my past, there is at least the possibility that someone does not want to be found. There might be the odd old former colleague I would be pleased to hear from. But it might also feel like I was being stalked. If I have managed the last 20, 30 or 40 years without someone in my life then I can probably conclude that that connection is stale. A couple of times I have ran into someone from my youth and, after the initial and inevitable catch-up with them, I realised that there was a reason I never bothered to keep in touch with them.

[stevensfo]

some shops try to force you to hand over your email address

At least with shops I find that whilst refusing can cause a problem or delay, you can just give them a fake number or email.

This is one of those things, like not accepting cash, that I've heard about but not actually experienced myself.

Not sure how I'd react. Though probably a bit like Basil Fawlty.

No idea why it should cause a delay though. I'd simply say no, since it's part of our policy on 'Privacy and Security' and if they want our personal email address, I'll send them the twenty page document that they have to fill in and return including certified copies of birth certificates of the CEO and all staff, their N.I. numbers, addresses over the last 10 years and enclosing an SAE.

Steve