Welcome to this monthly Accounting News bulletin from DG Accountancy Services (http://www.businessbods.co.uk) bringing Small Business' news and information from the business world, as it happens!
Tuesday, 5 August 2008
A new survey has revealed that UK businesses are breaching data protection laws by relaying personal information about their customers to third parties. According to internet security firm StrongMail UK, an alarming number of marketing firms are prepared to hand out sensitive information to other companies in a bid to boost sales. The study, which questioned data protection and marketing professionals from 900 firms, found that one in five respondents had given out credit card details, while one in seven would be prepared to disclose information about their clients political allegiances. One in ten also said that they would divulge details of their customers’ ethnic background and religious beliefs. Meanwhile, 61% of marketing and data protection executives claimed they had experienced a data breach resulting in the loss of customer information. 90% of these violations were not reported back to the customer. Commenting on the findings Paul Bates, email marketing expert and managing director of StrongMail UK, said: ‘Businesses have a moral, ethical obligation to keep private, personal customer data safe and secure. ‘They should not be handing it out to third parties in the hope of making a fast buck. If they choose to do this, and then lose customer data, then they should at least be obliged to admit it.’
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