Halfords slapped on wrist for breaching email marketing laws Bike and car accessory retailer Halfords has found itself in the wrong lane with Britain’s data watchdog for sending hundreds of thousands of unsolicited marketing emails to members of the public. According to the Information Commissioner’s Office, it fined the business £30,000 for dispatching 498,179 messages to folk that …
"The breach, however, was considered to be negligent rather than deliberate, hence the size of the fine was considered proportionate."
I'm sure the last time Halfrauds were mentioned on El Reg, it was to do with any old clown being able to increment the order number through one of their websites and getting a total stranger's personal data? It was either an article or a commentard had spoke of it.
The fact that the above story has been spoken about (I think they were contacted over it and did nothing), and now this, I'd have thought that being negligent was every bit as bad as being deliberate. The fine should've been bigger, as otherwise they just won't learn.
You get that in quite a few places now, I always say no as I don’t want them to have the right to potentially spam me with marketing.
I always give the minimum information, obviously if something is being delivered then they need the address, but if I am in the shop give me the receipt and I will file it away in case I have a problem with the item.
You don't have to give it......
I am not sure why Halfords have been singled out like this. There are many other dubious companies based in the UK that send endless emails, even when you unsubscribe or didn't even give then the details in the first place.
Things based around vouchers, deals, scams etc (Wowcher or GreatDeals), the list is endless but you never hear about then being fined.
Or how about the websites that provide a pop-up alleging that you are the "millionth search" today in a pop-up that looks to originate from Google. People just click on this crap because it looks "okay as it is from Google" yet is nothing but data harvesting.
"I am not sure why Halfords have been singled out like this"
Most likely because, instead of actively policing such matters, the ICO relies on complaints, and there seems to be a threshold for number of complaints below which investigation is not triggered. This is of course a perfect recipe for failure, but it's going to get worse if the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill currently before Parliament gets implemented.
A while back I had Currys ask me for email address when I was going to buy a vacuum cleaner - "for the warranty" was the reason given. I refused. The lady on the till said she the till would not let her proceed without email address - she even offered to enter her own! I declined and walked out the store without the vacuum cleaner. 1 lost sale.
We have that here in the States also. Solution? My Yahoo spamcatcher email address - which I visit monthly for a mass deletion. If they insist on a phone number, I give them the number for our State Attorney General's local office. One cheesy fraud deserves another.
e-receipt is great on 2 counts:
1. most people are resigned and just give them the email (which is valuable, because it's certainly 'LIVE!')
2. saves paper and toner, every little helps.
re. asking for e-mail / postcode across Europe, shops, but also airports, I just give them THE look like I'm going to slit their throat right there, then I hold off a few seconds (weighting all for and against), sigh (decision-making process complete), make a forced smile (your lucky day, pal), and politely decline. Seldom have to bear them try again. The only thing that worries me is that this hapless clerk / 'assistant' is NOT. GUILTY. It's their fucking company bossess who were (rightly) sold the idea of BIG. DATA. Unfortunately, no point going on a rampage against their HQ, I'd never get through security guards :(
A "no, thanks" without the theatre dramatics works fine, and actually shows you're a decent human being.
It's certainly not the cashier's fault. She hates asking just as much as you do. It's not like she has the choice to stop asking. Try not making her day just that much worse.
What got my goat was Barnes & Noble's habit of asking if you had a membership, then harping on how much you would save, then asking again, then asking "are you sure?"
It was so bad I stopped shopping there for several years, and apparently so did everyone else. Several local B&Ns went out of business, and now they don't even ask.
Indeed.... they ask for mine, i tell them no, if they push, and say 'it's just for the email receipt' they get fukoff@die.com ... because i once gave them my address, took a stern email to a supposedly private address within their corporate monolith to get my address removed (simply marking it do not send spam' wasn't acceptable to me)
Halfords were one of the first companies in the UK to offer to send you an e-receipt, i.e. an email, if you gave them your email address at point-of-sale.
Of course that's quite helpful for high value items with decent warranty but also builds a nice database behind it. Under-time-pressure shop assistants probably didn't really have time to read out all the T&Cs associated and clicked 'done' to get to the next customer and then it snowballs from there.
Spin on a couple of years and a marketing womble (working from home) finds a lovely database of emails with 'I consent' ticked and fires off the salvo....
I bet it did. Imagine what the free assessment was like....
"Hmmm, slight scratch on the reflector there..... brake pads worn down by a millimetre...... few other things..... yes, that'll cost, let me just add it all up for you, erm £49.99 total. And by an amazing coincidence, the government voucher will cover it all!"
Presumably, the amount they received in these vouchers more than covered the fine.
Can we do the same for the blood donar people. During Covid I apparently had it but had no symptoms so was asked to give plasma. So I did. Got there and they couldn't get it (apparently not possible on everyone) so I went home. They then kept emailing me to give blood and every time I unsubscribe but a month or so later I get another fucking email from them. So despite saying they have removed you from their mailing list, they fucking aren't.
They never has an unsubscribe, and will send multiple emails to you to do a review (Trustpilot based, usually)
Now I am happy to give a star review, but nope, you have to then write some blurb on the product, and now trustpilot wants you to log in first, before doing this. I can't be arsed, quite frankly, unless I have something to gripe about.
And if you don't do the review, they'll send you another reminder or two a few days later. And as these emails come from the vendor, and not trustpilot themselves, you can simply block the sender.
it's just a tax, and a small one. Businesses can get away with anything so long as they pay the tax/bribe/fee. This is called corruption. Nobody goes to jail, nobody get punished and the illegal activity doesn't slow down at all. Only people are criminals, companies are exempt from all but fines/bribes.
is shit. Has been shit since the moment it was created. They know they're shit, but they don't care, because they do fuckall and get paid handsomely to show that 'the gov' is with little people. And whenever you get a whinger like myself, they turn around and say: but we can't do any more, complain to the current (past, future) government.
30K sends the right message: carry on, nothing to see here!
I think just about all these government-funded bodies supposed to protect/help the consumer are useless and a total waste of money. Take Action Fraud, for example: has anyone ever found them to do anything useful when you report a fraud to them?
My most recent experience is with the Rail Ombudsman, when I complained about trains being replaced by a rail-replacement bus, and then all buses cancelled. I drove to another station but my claim for petrol expenses was refused. The correspondence now has lasted over a year - still no result. I think it's a completely useless organisation - or does anyone know better?
I've simply stopped using Halfords because they generally won't give you a receipt, insist on collecting your email address. My last visit, some time ago, took a long time because first they tried to overcharge, and then refused to give me a receipt confirming that they had charged me the right amount. After an argument that lasted maybe 15 minutes I got my way, as I saw that there WAS a printer attached to their till, they just didn't want to use it.
I really dislike Halford's scummy approach to marketing and email harvesting.
They started asking all customers if they would like to provide their email address so they can "send them the invoice receipt in PDF". No "would you like to sign up to our marketing list?" or anything, just an email address please sir.
Do I believe it won't go into the Facebook email API to spam Facebook people with Halford's advertising?
Do I believe it won't "accidentally" auto-enrol me into someone who has "declared an interest in Halford's marketing"?
No. I am buying £20 of engine oil. You do not need my email address for that.
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