Research commissioned by the Information Commissioner’s Office ICO reveals that 29% of 18-34-year-olds received unwanted contact after giving their personal information to a business.
They found that two thirds of the public believes it is not morally right to use personal details given for business purposes for romantic or sexual propositions. Only 5% believe it to be morally right.
They have today launched a call for victims of so-called ‘text pests’ to come forward to help the regulator gather evidence of the impact of this illegal behaviour.
Text pests are individuals who use personal information, such as a phone number or email address, given to them in a business context for “romantic” or sexual propositions – for example, asking a customer out on a date after they ordered a takeaway.
Emily Keaney, Deputy Commissioner, Regulatory Policy at the Information Commissioner’s Office says:
“People have the right to order a pizza, or give their email for a receipt, or have shopping delivered, without then being asked for sex or a date a little while later. They have a right to know that when they hand over their personal information, that it will not then be used in ways that they would not be comfortable with. But our research today shows a disturbingly high number of people, particularly young people, are falling prey to these text pests.
“There may be, amongst some, an outdated notion that to use someone’s personal details given to you in a business context to ask them out is romantic or charming. Put quite simply, it is not – it is against the law.
“If you are running a customer facing business, you have a responsibility to protect the data of your customers, including from your employees misusing it. We are writing to major businesses, including food and parcel delivery, to remind them that there are no excuses, and there can be no looking the other way.
“We’ve launched this call for evidence today because we want to hear directly from the public how this misuse of personal information has affected them. As the data regulator, we can then use this to inform our work protecting the public.”
