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If a business has a record of customers' phone numbers (some on paper and some electronic) but no express consent from customers to call them for direct marketing purposes, is it lawful for such calls to be made?
Have you checked they aren't registered on TPS?
Who said it's for me?
No, the person has not checked that, but would be going for mobile no's only for that reason.
We adopt the 'no marketing' calls with our database if that helps.
Just used for communication.
Emails are monitored and maintained by Mailchimp software so people sign up to it and can then opt out etc.
Better to be safe than sorry.
[i]no express consent from customers to call them for direct marketing purposes, is it lawful for such calls to be made? [/i]
No.
DPA basically says (amongst other things) that you can only use customer data for the purposes you said you'd use it for and only if they expressly gave you permission to use it for that purpose.
Thanks IHN, my brief research was leading me down that route.
what happens if you were never a 'customer' for example being called by debt collection agencies for somebody elses debt because you're a family member?
what happens if you were never a 'customer' for example being called by debt collection agencies for somebody elses debt because you're a family member?
Well that's easy. You just invoke the Get F***** protocol.
For all practical purposes yes it is. You can however request all the data a company has on you and by law and they have to provide it. The problem is where a business has bought in a list of numbers as they can claim they acquired your number in good faith and that is what most of them do.
The best/only way to avoid such calls is to register your numbers with TPS at which point it becomes illegal for a company to call you unless you have opted in.
I work for a data provider.
at the moment mrsconsequence is going down the not bothering to answer the phone route, her dad has a load of debt and keeps buggering off out the country 🙁
[i]at which point it becomes illegal for a company to call you unless you have opted in. [/i]
Unless you have opted in for contact for marketing purposes (or not opted out, depending how the permission is sought), it already is illegal for a company to contact you for marketing purposes. TPS or no TPS.
FWIW, I had to threaten Lathwaites Wine with a report to the Data Commissioner because after numerous requests to stop contacting me they continued to do so.
IHN is spot on and it's an important distinction if the company have your details as a customer then the opt in opt out does indeed apply however cold calls are slightly different.
Actually, yeah, that's a good point:
a) If you got the data from the customer in the first place, you can only do with it what you said you would and they agreed you could. And you must make sure that it's kept up to date and accurate (i.e. if they change what they say you can do with it, e.g. "take me off your mailing list")
b) If you got the data from a public source (phonebook, purchased lists of contact data, electoral roll etc), you can contact them but must remove their data from your records and not contact them again if that's what they ask you to do. If you do make a sale following the initial contact and they become a customer, then a) applies
what happens if you were never a 'customer' for example being called by debt collection agencies for somebody elses debt because you're a family member?
They're not marketing a service to you so its not cold calling in a sense that you can opt out of through TPS or similar. But if you are not who they are looking for and don't have or don't want to give the information they are asking for then their persistantly calling you becomes harrassment.
Making sure you say the harrassment word (before the ****less swines hang up on you mid-sentance) should abate the calls. But debts get sold on from agency to agency so theres a good chance the debt and the phone number will get passed on again.