Why I hate “data protection”
When I rang a call centre this morning to make a payment on behalf of my wife I was faced with some daft questions. “It’s all to do with data protection”. No it bloody isn’t! It’s to do with inane call centre managers not working out what is really needed.
Calling to make a payment is not the same as calling to check on the results of a medical examination or the size of a mortgage. The exchanges of information are going in the opposite direction. So there was no data to protect.
Image by fdecomite via Flickr
But having successfully cleared to hurdles of: Name (Public Domain Info), Address (Public Domain Info), Date of birth (Public Domain Info) and Postcode (this gets repetitive now…) I was allowed to make a payment.
But then I was asked if payment would be made with the card ending in “2345″. Hang on, that’s my data they were being a bit casual with. What right did they have to talk to someone who only answered banal questions about a card number and ask if payment should be charged to that card?
It can only be the right bestowed on idiots who plan process that do not match the world in which they are being used and hide behind phrases like “It’s data protection” when they’ve no idea what that really means, and nor do they care.
