2nd hand filing cabinets and GDPR

[juice]

So the local office furniture supplier we deal with sold us some filing cabinets (second hand).

We've since opened one of them up to find them full of lease agreements (and KYC info) from a local well-known Estate Agent.

It's obviously a bit of a breach of GDPR, so how would you go about letting them know/telling them to sort their data handling out ?

It's basically the same scenario as this...

https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-and-events/n...

[meatballs]

Depends how much you care. I'd send them an email with a picture and tell them to sort their crap out. I wouldn't waste further time on it myself as I have nothing to gain/lose apart from try and extort some money out of the EA for dealing with their incompetence.

If its too much to fit in the recycling tell them to come collect it. [edit: legally you probably shouldn't put it in the recycling just incase some gotcha comes around and means you had some responsibility for the data]

[BertBert]

juice said:

So the local office furniture supplier we deal with sold us some filing cabinets (second hand).

We've since opened one of them up to find them full of lease agreements (and KYC info) from a local well-known Estate Agent.

It's obviously a bit of a breach of GDPR, so how would you go about letting them know/telling them to sort their data handling out ?

It's basically the same scenario as this...

https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-and-events/n...

I'm going to go out on a limb here, but perhaps tell both? Use words uttered orally or recorded and electronically sent? Or even some form of analogue word recording and delivery mechanism?

[Dog Star]

This is a bit novel. But since I'm not a smartarse, personally I'd just rip said papers up and stick them in the bin.

[juice]

I'm going to phone them and let them know. Then shred the lot of it.

There's scans of passports, DL, bank accounts/sort codes, signatures etc. It would be a scammers jackpot !

Interestingly - they charge 35% + VAT as their fees

[Dabooka]

Going against the grain a bit here.

With that kind of content I’d be reporting it. I have to take this stuff seriously and as a consumer and user of various services, I’d be angry as fk to think this had gone on.

I wouldn’t be treating it as doing a small favour for someone.

[untakenname]

Stuff like that is exactly what should be reported imo, it show's pure contempt for their customers leaving all their personal information.
Would have only taken them a couple of minutes to have burnt the papers or shredded them.

[Caddyshack]

untakenname said:

Stuff like that is exactly what should be reported imo, it show's pure contempt for their customers leaving all their personal information.
Would have only taken them a couple of minutes to have burnt the papers or shredded them.

Burning is not a good form of destruction. Try chucking a load of bank statements on a fire and then come back when cold and some of it will still be there. I think it is due to lack of oxygen between the pages close together.


Tough one really....you could sell the story to a competitor or news paper but that seems a bit horrid as someone is likely to lose their job. You could phone the head office and tear off a strip. Report it or just shred it.

[Initforthemoney]

Just tell the fking company you bought them from!


How the fk can this be a problem that needs a thread on a car forum?

[Captain_Morgan]

As others have said report it to ico, how would you feel if it was your or someone close to you’s data?

[55palfers]

Cabinet belonged to an Estate Agent you say?

Hmmmmmm. Let me think.

Report to ICO.

[Cyberprog]

Don't do anything with the data. Notify the ICO and the estate agents.

Technically everything in there is your property too I think!

[Camelot1971]

Initforthemoney said:

Just tell the fking company you bought them from!


How the fk can this be a problem that needs a thread on a car forum?

Ironic, given the amount of non car related st you post on the forum.

[williamp]

Cyberprog said:

Don't do anything with the data. Notify the ICO and the estate agents.

Technically everything in there is your property too I think!

No. The data contoller would be the EA. IF you decided to shart processing it yourself- contatcing the data subjects, etc then you would be a data procesor and posibly cause yourself headaches.

Report go the EA and ICO. Job done.

[Wooda80]

Just out of interest, how old are the documents?

That might give an indication about when the Estate Agent disposed of the cabinet and therefore the prevailing attitude and rules relating to the sensitive information

[Chimune]

Report it to the ico.

[Buster73]

Op is looking for confirmation of how much he can get paid off the EA to remain quiet , nothing more nothing less.

[juice]

Wooda80 said:

Just out of interest, how old are the documents?

That might give an indication about when the Estate Agent disposed of the cabinet and therefore the prevailing attitude and rules relating to the sensitive information

The Tenancy agreements are Dated 2018.

Now the EA know about this, I believe they're required to report it themselves to the ICO and also notify those affected (the 3rd parties). Whether they will or not is open to speculation....I suspect not.

Part of the quandry I have is that firstly someone will probably lose their job over it and secondly I'm not sure it's encumbent on us to be someone else's data police. But, I agree that they have been lax at a very charitable best and opened up 2 people to potential ID theft. So I'm going to phone the ICO and report it tomorrow.

Thanks everyone for their input.

Cheers

[Initforthemoney]

Camelot1971 said:

Initforthemoney said:

Just tell the fking company you bought them from!


How the fk can this be a problem that needs a thread on a car forum?

Ironic, given the amount of non car related st you post on the forum.

Thanks!

[p4cks]

Dog Star said:

This is a bit novel. But since I'm not a smartarse, personally I'd just rip said papers up and stick them in the bin.

This.