Look around the table. If you don't see a sucker, get up, because you're the sucker - Amarillo Slim
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PC World admits dumping customer data
CUSTOMER DATA IN SKIPS has been PC World's idea of secure financial information disposal and it has got the retailer into a spot of bother with the authorities.
DSG, which owns PC World, has been found in breach of the Data Protection Act by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
Apparently customers' credit agreements were found in or blowing about a skip at one of the outfit's PC World stores.
Eight completed credit agreements containing customers' personal and financial data were found by the rubbish men, or "a local authority's environmental health department" as the ICO calls them.
Not only had the documents been kept for longer than the period recommended by DSG's policies for holding personal data, they should have been transported in sealed containers for secure shredding, but this did not occur in this instance.
John Browett, CEO of DSG Retail, has promised that it will not happen again. He has signed a formal undertaking agreeing to an action plan to tidy up the company's act.
This includes conducting a review of security procedures and providing appropriate training for staff on complying with the company's security policies.
Mick Gorrill, head of enforcement at the ICO said, "Any organisation collecting and holding personal information needs to ensure that information is kept and disposed of safely and securely. He said that this was an important principle of the Act and staff need to be aware of policies and it is essential they receive appropriate training to follow them." µ
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so I'm no stranger to this. Whereas there were official channels through which the paperwork must travel (at least in my store) it was possible for failed documentation (customer, printer, or otherwise related)to find its way into the nearest bin. Those agreements held little personal data though, maybe they're talking about something else.
As crap as the company was, the employees were awesome. Everyone hated the Fives selling techniques forced on us from upper management, and all of us wanted nothing more than to have a laugh and make the customers happy. We would lose so many sales thanks to having to reach performance targets because if we sold items without say, our insurance policies bolted on then we would be punished for it. So we used to pretend we had none in stock. You'd think any sale was good, surely? *sigh* great potential wasted.
Burning Down House. Our House. Never Trust Business, If Be Ins., Really Will Burn Down Your House, Just Refuse Them & Find OUT.
PCWorld has Web Site thats Not Too Bad.
New Def: Chocalate Cutting. Chalk With Late Timing. Standard of theIND.
vondrashek md
pc world customers are amoeba-brained fools anyway so i dont think this counts as an infringement