Are Financial Companies Misusing Your Data

Are Financial Companies Misusing Your Data?

The financial services arbitration service, The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has published in its latest newsletter a warning to financial services companies that they must have systematic controls in place to prevent the misuse of any client’s personal information data.

It is actually the duty of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to ensure that any firm that holds personal data information must keep a record of the same and ensure its security. We are all required to clean our clients details totally confidential and are not allowed to pass these details on without permission from a client. This is the Data Protection Act.

The Financial Ombudsman has warned financial services firms that if they abuse this position and pass on client information to others then the ombudsman will be in a position to award financial compensation. You may not be aware but a regulated financial services firm must comply with any financial compensation awarded by the ombudsman service.

Comment

We are staggered that any financial services firm would actually share personal client information with others without client permission.

We suggest this may impact significantly on non-regulated financial websites and indeed media, television and newspaper websites that collect your personal information and pass this through either automatically or via something as simple as an enquiry form to generate a lead for a financial company to then subsequently contact you. As ever, whilst it may be tiresome: you must always read the small print before agreeing to anything either online or by telephone!