Thirteen million Barclays’ customers will receive a letter shortly which may well affect their opinion of the banking group. In the letter, Barclays will inform the customers of their intention to share customer information with third parties, a move which is bound to upset quite a number of the recipients.
According to reports, the letters will include details of what information may be shared. Photographs of customers, recordings of their voice, any interaction with the bank on social media such as Facebook and Twitter and location data sent by customers’ mobile devices are all listed in the document. However, the bank is adamant that any data shared with a third party would be aggregated to show trends and would not include any identifiable information. The changes, which will come into effect on 9th October, will affect current and savings account holders.
A leaflet which is currently being circulated to all affected account holders states “We can combine information about you with information about other Barclays customers to create reports which we may share with companies outside Barclays. This information is numerical and not personal, and you will never be identifiable on the basis of it.” “We only use information in a numerical, anonymised and aggregated way, as is standard practice at many companies. It is not about providing information for sales or marketing use and does not include any personal data.” With regards to data protection issues, Barclays’ letter states “Customers are always able to opt out of marketing activity and their personal data will never be passed on to anybody else without their explicit consent.”
Some examples of the ways in which the data may be used include giving MPs an insight into the happenings in their constituency, using mobile phone location services to determine if a customer was in the vicinity of potential fraudulent activity on their account and providing data on how much is spent on particular products and services.
Barclays are keen to stress that customers have the opportunity to opt-out.
Is this moving towards the thin edge of the wedge, or do you think that you have nothing to worry about? Leave us a comment below with your thoughts.
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