Customer's personal information passed to another provider

Customers receiving accounts for 190 calls from a company that is not their preferred provider sometimes complain to the TIO that their personal information has been passed to another telephone company without their permission.

Telephone companies are allowed to share personal information for billing purposes if they follow specific legal guidelines. Section 291 of Part 13 of the Telecommunications Act 1997 allows the provider who has the customer's details to disclose the customer's information to another provider so that it can bill for the calls made, even if the customer's telephone service is not with that particular provider. Information can be forwarded in this way even where the number is silent; however, mutual arrangements between companies should prevent silent line information appearing in any directory services.

Unless there appears to be a breach of the legislation, the TIO cannot investigate complaints of this nature.

Next: Disclosure of silent numbers