Info request tool gets thumbs-up from Banking Ombudsman

Info request tool gets thumbs-up from Banking Ombudsman

An online tool to help people seek personal information held by organisations such as banks has won favour with the Banking Ombudsman Scheme.

The Privacy Commissioner’s online tool AboutMe contains a standardised form setting out all the details required to process information requests.

“It will empower individuals by ensuring they include all the details banks need to respond to information requests, taking out the guesswork for people who you wouldn’t necessarily expect to know what they should ask for and how to go about it.

“Part of our role is to reduce complaints and ideally AboutMe will contribute to a decrease in privacy-related banking complaints.

“It complements the scheme’s Quick Guide to Retention of information which explains how long banks must keep different types of personal information, what form it can be held in, and what rights customers have to access information held on them,” Banking Ombudsman Nicola Sladden said.

The number of privacy-related cases the scheme has received for the first three-quarters of this financial year had increased. But the increase was mainly in enquiries. Privacy-related disputes have remained steady.

And cases in which bank customers believed their banks were withholding information from them make up 20 percent of this year’s privacy cases, down from 45 percent for the same period last year. Other key concerns relating to privacy:

• disclosure of information – 19 percent so far this year, up from 14 percent for the same period in 2014/15

• breach of privacy – 61 percent this year, up 20 percent

“We also get complaints from people who have given out personal information to individuals who turn out to be fraudsters. Banks have obligations to protect customers’ personal details, but customers, too, have obligations to take reasonable care in protecting that information.”

Ms Sladden urged people to take some simple precautions, namely:

• make sure you know who you’re dealing with

• never give out account details such as logins, PINs and passwords

• never accept money into your account for subsequent transfer to others

• update passwords regularly

• check your accounts regularly to ensure money is going to the right places

For more information quick guides on Retention of information, Privacy and confidentiality. Common scams targeting bank customers and Looking after your credit and debit cards and PINs

ENDS

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