Who Deals With The Misuse Of Personal Information?

[Thunderchild]

I run a small company from home, in fact I am the sole resident of the house and the sole owner and shareholder of the company. I have received from what I assume is yet a further iteration of a work agency and offer of an apprentice, no doubt this agency stands to cream plenty of money off the government. However the guy is utterly incompetent as he has forwarded me the young ladies CV containing her full contact details and address (home address, phone number and email address), just round the corner from me in fact I believe she is the next-door neighbour of a friend of mine. I'm a fairly benign person but I think it is reasonable to expect that this young lady would not want her personal details scattered to the four winds on the Internet (via email). This agency clearly are just bombarding anybody they can think of with offers for cheap labour under the official name of apprenticeship scheme and they can't even be bothered to carry out the basic service that an agency does which is to protect their customers personal details until they need to be disclosed to the person with whom they will eventually do business.

Clearly the guy has done absolutely no research whatsoever as I have absolutely no need for an apprentice and I don't need sales clerks I do engineering design and manufacture.

Whose attention should I bring this to? I'm in half a mind to forward the email onto the young lady and ask if she is happy about this disclosure of her personal details to all and sundry including single men who live just round the corner.

[Mamyalynne]

I presume it would fall under Data Protection , but unsure you could make the complaint on the young lady's behalf.

Others will no doubt know better.


https://www.gov.uk/data-protection/the-data-protection-act

[Thunderchild]

So I need to contact her and explain I have been sent her full details.

I want to ensure these people are dealt with, I have had emails from this guy in the past and generally he can't even be bothered to properly edit his own email template mentioning more than one person's name in the email whilst attaching a CV for somebody with a totally different name.

[237SJ]

I believe it`s the Information Commissioner https://ico.org.uk/

[237SJ]

You don`t contact the girl, you report the company to the ico

[Thunderchild]

Judging from their website they are yet another body to which you can go and have a whinge only after you have made a complaint to the company in question and gone through their own procedure. So basically you have practically no rights unless something extremely grave has been committed. I might just for the whole email onto her explaining that her CV was attached containing her full details. What's more worrying is that this agency is trying to specifically match up local apprentices with local businesses so it's not like it somebody across the country that has your details it somebody around the corner.

[hc4361]

She may have given her permission for details to be circulated

[Thunderchild]

Oh I know it's easy to find people's contact details, but you don't usually find the email address and phone number of an under age girl on the Internet! To be honest finding somebody's address who is of that age and at that stage of life is unlikely. If you google my name you will find me but then I run a company. I know this is possible because my mother found my address despite the fact I had had no contact with her since we both came back from a foreign country.

[237SJ]

It`s actually an offence to contravene the data protection act and an individual at a company can be fined or get a prison sentence

[Thunderchild]

I don't think she would have given her permission. The idea is that this agent would be with her at a meeting with me if I was interested. If you go to a work agency and ask the people's addresses they don't hand them out they expect you to pay them to provide their service. Supplying the young ladies information is actually counter-productive for the people that have supplied it as I could contact her directly and see if she is interested in working for me and then this agency does not get any money. They have quite clearly messed up and given previous emails I have seen from the same person from the same organisation they are not very diligent they just want to cash in.

[Prudie]

Is it not more likely she has given her CV to the agency and hopes they find her a placement. That's what a CV is for.

[Thunderchild]

Yes but the idea is that the agency vets that CV before sending it out. She has provided her CV to the agency not to me or anybody else in the local area. As the agency's handling of her placement they should either extract any relevant information from her CV and put it into their own format or they should edit out her details. Clearly these people are completely lazy and incompetent as previous emails from the same person and company have demonstrated. He has been given another name and he has just put that name into his template and attached her CV without checking its contents.

[237SJ]

It depends what it said in the small print when the girl signed up with the agency. Disclosing details on a CV is not in breach of the Data Protection Act. Discosing name, address and telephone number/email address is though. You can give your permission for a company to share information to those that need to know it (within the EU).

[fiction-factory]

Some agencies hold my CV and it is occasionally sent to schools and colleges. I expect them to send the CV. I don't have my home address on as it's not relevant but I don't expect them to edit out qualification, experience etc. I did have my CV on CV library but took out some personal info as it's difficult to know who can access it. I think Prudie is probably right - the girl expects the agency to send it out to get work. If you are concerned, contact the agency -they may confim she has agreed to her CV being circulated

[237SJ]

The issue isn`t the CV being circulated - it`s the personal details on it. That is the data. It all depends if she has given written permission for that data to be circulated.

[Thunderchild]

that is the point, the need to know: I DO NOT NEED TO KNOW, I have no intention of employing her and even if I did i would not expect to get her full detils in a marketing email aimed at many other companies. The email does not even address me or my company, was not sent to me, it was sent out on a mailing list.

[Quizproquo]

You are asked when you join an agency if it is alright to pass on your details to potential employers.
You have given permission for your CV to be circulated if you say yes.

[Thunderchild]

We are talking about minors here. I would expect that as part of their "apprentiship" seeking service they would reveiw information provided and advise on the suitability of it being passed on to unknown people in "mail shots".

[ummmm]

Do minors do apprenticeships?

[Thunderchild]

Well I don't know, but clearly we are talking someone young just entering the job market.