Did Your Ex-ISP Purge Your Personal Data? 63
reallocate asks: "When you quit an ISP, do you expect that your personal info and your email accounts will be purged? So did I, but I was wrong. Do you know what your ISP does with your data if you quit them?" At first glance, this would seem to be a reasonable expectation, but these days, businesses are holding your data longer than you'd expect. If someone doesn't know for sure if an old business is holding their personal data, is there any way they can find out?
"Once upon a time, I was a Roadrunner customer. I dropped them and moved to another ISP. A few days ago, I fell prey to a "returning customer" inducement from Roadrunner that will, in truth, save me a few hundred dollars over the course of a year.
However, when the sales agent knew my address before I gave it to her, and the customer service guy I called later knew my Social Security number, although I had not yet provided it, it was clear Roadrunner had not purged my data when I had closed the old account, including user ID and password. Their agents were seeing that data displayed on their screens. And, checking what I thought were long-dead Roadrunner email accounts, I saw they'd been left open and active, with hundreds of messages piling up.
I've spoken with my local Roadrunner office and written their national office, asking about their policy on purging personal data when a customer drops an account, and, if it isn't purged, how they use that data. To be fair, both queries were made over the weekend and I'm waiting for responses."
ATTBI - Comcast (Score:1)
Re:ATTBI - Comcast (Score:2)
When we first got on the internet (1996), some friends and I had accounts with one local ISP. As time went on, we each cancelled our accounts for various reasons except for one guy...
Fast forward three years and when we were in town, we all used his account... sometime simulataneously. And he stopped receiving a bill, so he cancelled it.
Fast forward 3 more years and I try out the account. Sure enough, it works and there was some old email in there. Almost all the info was out of date, but a few of us
Is this guy serious? (Score:4, Informative)
I mean after all, there are plenty of companies out there that have your personal information that you have never even done business with (and they buy and sell personal information all the time).
Besides, it isn't like it is just ISPs either. How often do you get phone calls from ex-long distance providers asking you to switch back?
Re:Is this guy serious? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Is this guy serious? (Score:2)
Re:Is this guy serious? (Score:5, Interesting)
I had a terrible, terrible bank in Chicago some years back, and when I closed all the accounts and took the last of my money out (in person, I might add) they assured me that the account was closed.
Well, a check that was still floating around hit the bank a week later (it was months old and very small, so I had chalked it up to a balancing error) and rather than not pay it or contact me first, they paid it out, then sent me a bill for the overdraft charge in addition to the amount. The kicker: I tried to talk to them about it, but all I got were circles of:
them: "we only honor checks to open accounts, and yours is closed, so we couldn't have paid it"
me: "but you sent me this overdraft for the closed account saying you paid this out"
them: "well, the account must not have been closed"
me: "I have this piece of paper from you saying it was closed a week before this check was paid"
them: "if you had a check out there, you should have left enough money in the account to cover it"
me: "I didn't know it was still out there, and how can I leave money in a closed account?"
them: "You can't leave money in a closed account, but once an account is closed, you don't need to leave money, because we don't honor checks to closed account"
me: "but you DID..."
And so on. Took weeks to straighten out. Bluh.
Re:Is this guy serious? (Score:2, Interesting)
Why would anyone expect a company they have done business with to delete all records of having done business with them after they're no longer a customer? For one thing, companies are often required by law to retain certain documentation and for another - who the hell cares?
Why should an ISP be expected to delete their records any more than the electric company, phone company, Amazon.com or the IRS?
Of all the things to get yo
Re:Is this guy serious? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Is this guy serious? (Score:2, Informative)
Oh, and they don't have to give you service for any reason they decide, including you not giving them your SSN.
Them's the breaks.
Re:Is this guy serious? (Score:3, Informative)
Whenever anyone else asks for your SSN, simply tell them you wish to use another password or unique identification number.
I do not give out my SSN. It's a significan
Re:Is this guy serious? (Score:2)
Re:Is this guy serious? (Score:1)
Yes, but in a case like this, it's not going to screw anything up if you give them a fake number. In one of his books, George Hayduke divulges Richard Nixon's number so you can use it for just such occasions.
Re:Is this guy serious? (Score:2)
Is this guy serious? (Score:2)
I'd also assume that if your identity is recyclable, then the unique number assigned to it is as well.
Why would they delete it? (Score:3, Informative)
Personal data is a valuable asset. No corporation is going to willingly delete that information. If you're an ex-customer, doubly so: there is no "goodwill" to be gained by deleting it and they may be able to recapture you as a customer as evidenced here.
Re:Why would they delete it? (Score:3, Interesting)
Basically, you are allowed to use personal information only for the purpose you originally stated. Companies that collected this data to provide you with service are therefore legally bound to delete it once the customer cancels their account.
Very few companies actually do this.
Nope. (Score:3, Informative)
A few months back, I happened to get a bounce on a message to that address. I'd forgotten to update an email notification on a web app I'd built some years back, and the mailbox was full of spam and couldn't accept the message from the webapp.
It's been... oh, 2? 2 1/2? years since I switched away from Qwest, and the email account is still active. I could probably dial in if they still have dialup access.
Re:Nope. (Score:1)
Handy.
Re:Nope. (Score:2)
One ex-ISP did a purge... (Score:2)
Re:One ex-ISP did a purge... (Score:2)
Actually, backup schemes for ISPs is a very complex issue, requiring different retention and destruction protocols for different types of data, that may be difficult to map into filesystems.
I do agree, however, that "none at all" is a piss-poor disaster recovery regimen, and I suspect you were not the only customer to leave them after their disaster-non-recovery.
Re:One ex-ISP did a purge... (Score:1)
Re:One ex-ISP did a purge... (Score:2)
Re:One ex-ISP did a purge... (Score:1)
In the UK (Score:4, Informative)
Re:In the UK (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:In the UK (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:No where near good enough (Score:1)
SBC email address (Score:3, Informative)
I guess in a way it's like adding your name to one of those Mars DVDs. That email address will be taken long after I'm gone.
The two-headed Qwest (Score:3, Interesting)
Charter keeps it... (Score:2)
Not Where I work... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Not Where I work... (Score:2)
On a related topic: You know when companies say "this phone call may be recorded for quality purposes..."? Ask them sometime if you are allowed access to recordings of your phone calls (without a lawyer and a subpoena, that is...). The tapes are used for dispute resolution, as well, but you'll have to take the firm's word about what
Of course they don't. (Score:4, Insightful)
Data protection act (Score:4, Informative)
Some Co. do try to not tell you, in the hope your dont know you rights, just point out you do.
I always purged (Score:2)
Teleport was forwarding e-mail to me still 6 months later.
Re:I always purged (Score:2)
Depends on what you're asking about. (Score:2)
As to the personal info you give them when signing up, I don't expect them to get rid of it. Nobody else does, why should the ISP be any different? Plus, I think businesses are required to hold onto records for 7 years.
MSN (Score:2)
Fast forward about seven years. I've had at least seven different mailing addresses since then. I get a letter saying that I was a valued customer and they wanted me to try their newest version.
It's pretty obvious that MSN has never purged their databases.
Free lifetime email account. (Score:2)
Are you serious? (Score:2)
Reminds me of a story... (Score:5, Funny)
Which I guess brings this back on topic. Apparently some companies keep your information for multiple centuries.
Oh, THAT data! (Score:2)
Of the free web accounts I've used, I have noted a couple of things. One, they don't purge the userid or whatever data they collect; but two, they do purge the data in your home directory. Crosswinds did this to me a while back on a bogus allegation of spam.
As far as ISPs, while the personal data is held, the user data is either backed up to tape and purged after a fashion (Speakeasy [speakeasy.net]), summarily deleted if present (Earthlink - or more correctly, Mindspring did t [earthlink.net]
My old web page is still up (Score:1)
Leaving the obvious issues and questions aside, I think this just falls under the broad category of "If this was our biggest problem, we'd be doing OK
Having worked on some sales databases... (Score:3, Informative)
This is to cut down on multiple accounts (ie, I rent 5 movies, never return them, and instead of paying up I simply try to open a new account) as well as other issues surrounding liability (my son was never listed as a supplemental customer on my account! How could he have rented $150 worth of video games!) and so on.
However, I believe that a reasonable time frame should be established to purge or refresh old information, just as businesses are required to keep account statements back 7 years.
-Adam
It costs them nothing (Score:3, Interesting)
There's little to no cost associated with maintaining this data. It would probably cost them more in man-hours to delete my account than it would to just leave the account in place.
dialup still working (Score:2)
We canceled our dial up that day.
I can still dial into it, 4 years later, with no problems. Our webspace is still there too, and I've even checked the email a few times.
I've used it quite a few times, when RR goes down, or if I'm at someone elses house on my laptop.