Pestered by debt recovery service?
Bob Brenchley. wrote
I would ask "What right has the debt recovery service to even speak
about their son's debts to them?"
If someone owes me money, I know of no law that demands that I may not
inform whoever I like of that fact. Please cite which law you believe the
debt collection agency has broken?
Data Protection. It would depend, of course, on whether the data were
retained in 'processable form' - though my guess is that it would be. In
which case, the Debt Collection Agency are guilty of disclosing data without
the data subject's permission.
Of course, that would not apply to just any data. I think that if they rang
up and asked to speak to X....or indeed, asked for a forwarding address, no
disclosure has taken place.
The waters get murkier if they reveal themselves to be a Debt Collection
Agency, since they are then de facto revealing that the guy is probably in
debt - and that MAY be a step too far.
Abandoning the grey for black and white - what would clearly be a breach of
the DPA would be discussing details of the debt with a third party.