Consumers 'have to jump through hoops' for ICO to act

Lodging a successful complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office is being made virtually impossible by the endless red tape which individuals face to get their concerns investigated, fuelling fears that thousands of consumers give up the ghost because the process is simply too time consuming.
The claims follow a complaint logged with the ICO by a Decision Marketing reader over a phishing attack, in which a cold-caller attempted to obtain her bank details.
However, the fraudster already had all the reader’s other personal information, including her name and address, account number and details of the TV package she had signed up to, her last payment date and amount paid.
The reader reported the issue to Action Fraud but when she contacted Virgin Media she was first told that the fraud could well have been sparked by someone stealing her bill from her dustbin. When she pointed out she was on paperless billing, she was told that her email account must have been hacked. The firm denied it was to blame and got very shirty when it was suggested its own systems had been compromised.
A complaint was filed with the ICO on June 26, and this week the reader received a response from the regulator which read: “I understand that you have raised the issue verbally with Virgin Media. However, before we look at the issue you raise, we need to see evidence that you have given Virgin Media the opportunity to consider the matter first.
“Therefore we recommend that you write to Virgin Media explaining your concern. Once you have received a response, if you still have concerns about its information rights practices you should write back to us, providing us with a copy of its response.
“We will then consider your concern and decide if we think there is an opportunity to improve Virgin Media’s information rights practice.”
The Decision Marketing reader told us: “I have already phoned Virgin Media on numerous occasions, reported the issue to Action Fraud, phoned and emailed the ICO and then provided a written account of the scam call to the regulator too.
“Now I am expected to write to Virgin Media to give them a chance to explain their actions. It seems like I am being forced to jump through hoops just to get my complaint dealt with properly. Of course, I recognise that the ICO must prioritise cases but this fraudster had all my details in front of them and I can’t imagine that I am the only person affected. I am determined to get to the bottom of this so I will comply with the latest request. However, how many other people would bother?
“There must be thousands of complainants who simply give up, meaning shoddy data practices are going unpunished. Hopefully under GDPR this will improve but don’t hold your breath.”
“Earlier this week, the ICO’s Annual Report revealed complaints had hit a new record high. You just have to wonder how many more there could potentially be if it was easier to complain.”