[popper]

Originally Posted by JohnHorb

If we don't stop this now.....

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle3688387.ece

WOW, that needs more than a simple link or people might forget it.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle3688387.ece

"
April 6, 2008

Experian to track net users



James Ashton


EXPERIAN, the credit checking company, is braving mounting concerns over internet privacy with plans to launch a service that will track broad-band users’ activity so they can be targeted with advertising.

Through Hitwise, the web-site company it acquired for £120m a year ago, Experian has held talks with internet service providers to sell its monitoring technology.

Observers expect it to compete in part with Phorm,...
"
"
However, the key difference is that Hitwise, which describes itself as an “online competitive intelligence service” would play little part in dispatching the advertising to web pages itself, something that Phorm does through its Open Internet Exchange.

“Hitwise is not in the online behavioural targeting business,” a spokesman said.
...
"
"
The company has recruiteda heavyweight board, including David Dorman, the former boss of AT&T and Christopher Lawrence, the vice-chairman of Rothschild.

Experian, once part of GUS, is best known for trawling public records and selling the data to banks and retailers."

again, you might be needing to read SurlyBonds old CRA thread there.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...d-removal.html

"Defaults - a proposed method for removal and the full template letter
Basic things to remember about this whole process:

a) Remember that the three Credit Reference Agencies (CRAs), Experian, Equifax and CallCredit were not constituted by an Act of Parliament. They hold no official Govt. power even though they like to think they do.

b) The CRAs are corporations who simply have the technology to store vast amounts of data and have been doing so for years.

c) The banks and lenders supply them with information about your accounts not because they are legally allowed to, but simply because YOU agreed to it via your contract.

d) CRAs are allowed to hold any data about you that is deemed in the public interest or in the public domain. Things like Bankruptcy Orders and Discharges, CCJs, IVAs, etc. are public information, and you cannot stop CRAs holding this information. You can ask them to mark them as settled, but they do have legal right to hold JUST these on their records because there are actual Laws that allow them to do so, and judges have signed the Orders in all these types of cases. However, agreement 'defaults' do NOT come under those Laws, unless they have been progressed to a CCJ, etc.

e) Civil contract details cannot be stored unless you agree in writing. The Data Protection Act states clearly that your account information is personal data and only you have the right to determine who may collate, process and disclose it.

f) When CRAs reply with “it’s our legal right” they are talking nonsense. The legal to which they refer is simply the ‘lawful right’ because you gave permission. That permission can be withdrawn at any time according to your rights under the Data Protection Act.
You can see more about this in the copy of the Experian letter also here in the sticky section, where thay actually admit that they have no legal authority and that there is no six year 'rule'.

g) You are also allowed to tell any Data Controller (a company that processes or stores your data) to cease to process your data in any fully-automated process. The Data Protection Act states quite clearly that this includes processes that e.g. “affect your creditworthiness”. The actual clause is in the template letter.

h) If you decide to opt-out of auto-processing, then you may opt back in again later.

i) To ask a Data Controller to do anything you want them to do, including requesting bank statements, you send what is called a Data Subject Notice – you are known in the Act as the Data Subject – i.e. the person to whom the data refers.

j) Data is anything on computer disk, paper, etc., that can identify you as a individual person. “all 34-year-old architects” is not personal data, but “Mr A N Other, a 34-year-old architect from 16 Acacia Avenue, Anytown, AnyPostalCode” is personal data as it can identify a particular person.”

k) Your contract and all transactions relating to the running and administration of your account is deemed your personal data, as these may be subsets referenced by an account number that, in turn, can be linked to you.

l) All Data Controllers have a duty to protect your data, and must hold a Data Protection Act licence (issued by the Information Commissioners Office) to hold and process data. However, this licence does not allow them to disclose data without your express written permission – it is a criminal offence to do otherwise, except for reasons of national security, taxation, health, etc.

There is loads more on the Data Protection Act specifics and I might edit and add to this post as time goes by. The above is to give you the basics and the understanding of how to use this in the method below.
....
.....
"