Three Data Protection

[clivejo]

I have recently noticed that outbound calls from Three to customers are asking customers for personal details before they can speak, even if it has nothing to do with anything that would need to pass data protection.  

I got calls from the networking team regarding a fault and on every occasion the callers asked me for my full name, date of birth and postcode.  Why do Three need to know this when there is absolutely no other personal or financial information being exchanged?  Don't you realise that scammers are pretending to be Three and asking for all these details as well?!?  What is the likelihood of anyone else answering the mobile phone number that I provided to you and contacted you on to make the open the network ticket?!  Why do you feel the need to protect information on the operation of a mast?

How do I know that the caller is who they say they are and not trying to collect my personal information as part of a scam?

[JonathanB]

Hi @clivejo,

I appreciate your concerns, if you receive a call you're not expecting then you can check the call is genuine with customer services. If there's an update on a fault then the team will also be able to check this for you, and potentially connect you with an advisor in the tech team who called also.

Data protection is a really broad topic though, generally it's not possible for the team to conduct such a call without info recorded in your account including but not limited to the notes about the prior conversations, info about the device(s) and connection you're using, and they'll need to document the current conversation too. There's not likely to be any discussion where we're not processing personal info in some capacity, so we would always ask the validation questions such as you've described when we make contact.

Thanks,
Jonathan