I dont rant much, well not often in public, but there are some things I think large companies should get right. Data Protection is such a hot topic in the IT world and in Politics, but companies such as ING Direct still seem to be crap at it.

donkey is as donkey does

I own several domains and I look after many more for customers, one of these was “previously enjoyed” and its previous owner had set up email addresses. One of which he gave to ING Direct for an account he had with them.

A few years later he let the domain go and I registered it. I own the domain, so I get to say what addresses go to who etc. All the addresses of the domain are funnelled to my main account. If you send anything to any address of the domain it comes to me. Not difficult to understand really and pretty common.

So if its so easy to understand, why to ING Direct get so funny with removing the old address that comes to me from their ING Direct spamming systems ?

I asked twice by phone for them to stop sending someone else’s banking stuff to me, I was ignored and only after a threat to publish the banking mails did they even start looking into it. Even now they are dragging their feet and I think that means ING Direct are breaching the Data Protection rules.

4. Personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.  ( They know the address is incorrect or no longer valid, but don’t stop sending mails to it )

5. Personal data processed for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes. ( They know the address doesn’t work any more, but keep it anyway)

So they know they are not updating their database of personal information and they are keeping addresses that are out of date.  Double FAIL !

A simple check of the whois directory will tell you that I own the domain and have since July 2008, a check of the web archive shows it was let go around 2006!  For at least five years the address of the original owner and their customer hasn’t worked.  I have sent them this information, so they cant plead ignorance.

As I promised them, I will publish on this page all the mail they send to me.  I might remove the secret or important bits so Paul ( the intended recipient ) doesn’t have issues, but then again I might not.  I have warned ING Direct that I would do this, but they don’t seem worried.  They certainly haven’t asked me not to, and as my children know a simple please goes a long way!

If you google ING and Data Protection you get this page at the very top.  The power of the internet!

Why should I have to threaten such a large company as ING Direct, heaven only knows, you would think they would be able to sort things out, it says in their mail footer that their customer services people can sort this sort of thing out,

We hope you find this e-mail of interest. However, if you wish to unsubscribe from future ING Direct marketing material please call our Customer Services Team on 0845 603 8888.

you would think their IT people could sort it, maybe someone in marketing will see this and go and bang some heads together !

Personally I would never bank or invest in anything ING Direct does if this is an indication of how they treat their customers and their customers data.

It doesn’t seem like “a decent way to do banking” does it

July brought a new email  –

sent to paul@…..

Dear Mr Rowlands

Your quarterly savings account statement for the period April 2011 – June 2011 is now ready for you to view online.

Please login to your account at ingdirect.co.uk. If you are a new customer and have not yet received your PIN, your statement will be waiting for you once you have received and activated your PIN.

To view your statement, simply click on the ‘View quarterly statement’ button shown on-screen once you have logged in. Online statements are available to view for one year. Please print a copy if you wish to retain the information for your records.

Please note that you will not be able to reply to this e-mail, however if you do have any questions, please visit ingdirect.co.uk or call us on 0845 603 8888.

Yours sincerely

Des McDaid
Savings Director

ING Direct will never send you emails asking for your confidential or personal
security information such as your PIN or memorable date. If you receive any
such request, please contact one of our Customer Service Team immediately
on 0845 603 8888.

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