Banks regularly breach data rules claims group

Very good Read..........
Originally posted by 5corpio
Britain's biggest banks appear to be breaching data protection rules "with alarming regularity", a consumer group has said.

Which? Money said during the year to the end of August 2010, 515 complaints were lodged with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) about possible data protection breaches by the country's eight largest banks and building societies in which the ICO thought it was likely the company concerned had broken the rules.

But the consumer group, which obtained the data through a freedom of information request, said with only 13% of consumers having heard of the ICO, the number of breaches that were actually reported could be just the "tip of the iceberg".

More than half of the complaints arose as a result of the banks failing to provide customers with proper copies of the data they held on them.

Other potential breaches included banks holding inaccurate data about customers, staff failing to follow security measures and the disclosure of data to third parties.

Richard Lloyd, executive director of Which?, said: "Banks and building societies hold incredibly sensitive information and the impact on customers can be serious if they mishandle it, from affecting credit ratings to leaving people open to...........Read more HERE