What’s stopping you switching your current account?

Sorry to say Bishbut but credit rating firms have existed long before computers but it was computers that gave them so much power. I have repaired equipment in several decades ago , secretive and hidden , sometimes hard to access . Even then some people found out what they were and tried to attack them . The public is more compliant now . One could only be accessed via a two man lift then it was double reinforced glass screen and I had to show my pass card and was checked out first. Your absolutely right they have grown too powerful but that equals the banking system as well . Not long now to a paperless (money ) society then HMG +banks have us all under total control.

Many years ago, when the only office equipment was a telephone, typewriter and fax machine, I temped for a company that arranged finance for vehicles. I had to phone another company and ask for a ‘search, voters and written confirmation’ for the applicant. I then had to wait for a fax that could show all sorts of info.

‘Voters’ confirmed the applicant lived at the given address. All previous loans and HP was listed and whether the applicant had defaulted on any previous loan. All loans at the given address was also listed and I can’t remember the details now, but if the applicant had moved, they seemed to know about it.

I think harvesting personal data has gone on for a very long time. Innocent activities like enrolling children in the local newspaper’s juniors’ club brought forth offers and promotions. Sending off the jam jar labels for a golly badge provided useful information. In those days it was probably all on card index and fairly unmanageable, and the level of access was fairly well restricted to just the staff in the office. As Duncan says, computers have changed everything. Data can be hacked and then it can be mined and sold. Sometimes the data-keepers themselves are responsible for its dissemination – do they always diligently and conscientiously honour the preferences customers state for use of their personal information? I am sure the tick boxes to disallow it are conveniently ignored and they are frequently cast in a double negatives to make it confusing for people.

My policy has always been to give the bare minimum of information necessary to transact the business in question. I don’t need to give my age to buy something on line or even to give my telephone number so I don’t. I can’t prove this is why – touch wood – we are rarely pestered or entrapped but it might have something to do with it.

With respect to this particular Conversation, a number of large-scale money losses have occurred during house purchases when the final balance payment has had to be transferred to the solicitor or conveyancer and the seller has received a mysterious intervention requesting redirection the money to a different account. In the first place I don’t think such big-money transfers should be encouraged – or even permitted – until there is far more security in the process, and secondly I do not know why there is not more follow-up of these crimes as I am convinced there must be some inside work at the firm enabling such action to take place. Any legal firm with inadequate security protection for their clients’ data and casework should automatically be held liable for any consequences of a data breach.