A Bit of a Whinge about GDPR

This week has been the worst yet for nuisance/spam phone calls. I am getting about 15 a day, some in clusters a few seconds apart, some that display “number withheld” and/or “international”. A few have numbers that look like legitimate mobile numbers 0797…. that play messages if you pick up. Others look like local numbers on caller display until you notice an extra number after the phoney STD code.

It has got me thinking about GDPR. Has anyone benefited from this costly bureaucratic exercise? It must have cost the UK economy millions of pounds in lost time and consultancy fees, made life difficult for everybody and been a colossal drain on resources. And it doesn’t even work!

Example: I had a routine eye test at the opticians. I was asked to go through a tick box exercise, can we contact you by email – tick, by land line – tick, by mobile – no etc. Please take a seat the optician will be with you shortly. Then the receptionist called across from the desk to the waiting area “Mr F, would you please confirm the first line of your address”. I am sure my fellow patients weren’t really interested in learning my name or where I live. But isn’t that the point of GDPR, to keep such information out of the public domain.

Whoever agreed to the imposition of this pointless and wasteful legislation should be publicly named and shamed. Oh I nearly forgot! That isn’t allowed any more. I should sign myself Disgusted, of Tunbridge Wells. If only to avoid further data leaks.

Bill Ferguson, Osteopath 

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