Data protection is a hot topic, especially online, but what should you do before you share your details with a company? Here are the dos and don'ts of sharing your personal information - so it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
Identity crime is sadly becoming an all too common occurrence, but lots of companies will perfectly legitimately ask for your details when you register with them.
But what can you do to make sure your personal information remains private? Here are our top tips:
1. Check the company’s privacy policy:
Before you share your personal information with any company it is a good idea to read through their privacy policy.
This should be readily available on the company’s website and can usually be found via a link at the bottom of each page in the same area as their terms and conditions and information about the company itself.
Within the privacy policy they should state clearly what information they will collect from you and whether they will pass your details to any other companies (usually referred to as third parties).
Many companies will look to profit from passing your contact details to other businesses and if you're not careful you could end up getting bombarded with sales calls or spam mail that you don’t want.
When you sign up or register an account with a company you'll usually be given the option to opt out of having your details shared with 'carefully selected third parties'. This will generally involve selecting or deselecting a box during the sign up process and it's a good idea to do it.
For the record, here is the money.co.uk privacy policy!
2. Don't give any more information than you need to:
Many website will ask you for more information than they strictly need when you buy products or register an account.
This may be for several reasons: to suggest different products or services that may be of interest you, to find out what demographic of people are interested in their product or site, or so that they have the information on file if they need it for any future reason.
However most websites will indicate the minimum amount of information they require by using an * above the required fields.
If you want to keep closer control over your personal information there is no need to fill in all the information merely those that are needed to complete your registration.
3. Do set up a separate email account
One simple way of separating your details from companies is to set up a separate email address specifically for online shopping and for registering for social networking sites etc.
This way if you have inadvertently agreed to allow a company to share your email address it will still be separate from your personal email account.
4. Do read the small print
On occasions some companies will assume that you agree to share your details as part of their registration process.
This is often the case with restaurants that offer vouchers on their websites but require you to enter your email details – while they may not sell your details on to a third party they often add your email address to their database and register it for their marketing emails.
However, certain companies will take your decision to sign up for their services as your agreement to allow them to sell your details to other companies.
If this is the case it must be stated when you enter your details, although it may be in the small print at the bottom of the page so this is always worth reading!
Do I need to worry about my details being passed to ‘selected third parties’?
In most cases companies pass-on or buy information in an attempt to make a profit. So it's worth remembering that by agreeing to have your information shared with third parties you'll soon find your details in the possession of companies you have never had any dealings with.
Although not necessarily malicious in nature, you may start to receive excessive junk mail to your email account or home address – so it’s a good idea to check exactly what you are agreeing to before you enter any details and opt out if possible.
