CYMRU MARKETING JOURNAL

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Month: January 2020

British Gas Privacy Policy Data Sharing

Mon, January 27, 2020 / RENATA BARNES / 0 Comments
British Gas the Corporate Gorilla.

Did you know that regardless of GDPR rules these blue chip corporate companies have rules of their own and if you are not happy they simply will not provide you the service.

I have just got off the phone with a customer service rep who basically said if I am not happy with their data sharing they will not provide me Gas regardless of GDPR rules.

So looking further into their privacy policy I was shocked to find not only do they share information with credit reference agencies they also share your personal data with the following companies. My question is what has my data got to do with Google, Facebook, Twitter and the like?

Their answer was that because they offer credit they must share your personal data. I am obviously not a corporate giant and I do offer monthly payment plans for my clients, yet the difference is I safeguard my clients personal data and do not share it with any third party.

This is totally wrong on so many levels and the cheek of it is if you are not happy then “Adios” you will have to burn candles instead to keep you warm.

Here is the pdf for their privacy policy:

British-Gas-Energy-privacy-notice

For a quick review here are the companies they share your personal data with:

Centrica Plc (Their Parent Company).
Google
Mediacom
Awin
Rakuten
Facebook
Indicia
Brandwatch
Twitter
Lithium
Communisis
VST
Equifax
Experian
TDX
Callcredit/TransUnion
National Grid
CSP
GHE Solar
ECO Greendeals
Infinity Energy
Infinity Energy
Sustain
Trade Engine
Deloitte

They claim they do not sell your information to third parties, but sharing is ok in their eyes. So in theory anyone of these companies I have listed to you above can contact you with their marketing spiel. Have you ever wondered how these marketing companies get your information?, now you know, as each one of these companies have their own set of T&Cs and they can then sell your information on.

I think that credit agencies need to be accessed to see if you can pay your bills or not and if you fall into arrears then debt collecting agencies. But to share with social media platforms and affiliate sites is absolutely a NO WAY for me and should not be allowed. But GDPR only covers the UK & the EU so sharing your data to countires out of the jurisdiction is possible and you will have to get an army of lawyers to back you up.

I’m not happy and thought I should share this with my readers.

Managing Business Payments

Mon, January 20, 2020 / RENATA BARNES / 0 Comments
Managing Business Payments

When managing money on a monthly basis it is always best to write out a payment plan.

Be brutal with yourself and allow for the unexpected expenses.

Decide also what needs paying first or like me predict when payments are coming in and when they are going out.

If push came to shove would you put a website on top of the list if it meant that without a website your main source of income would fail?

If you a bricks and mortar business and have some business walk-ins then maybe you may not want to prioritise your website. But if your website generated your main source of income you would pay your electricity, your broadband, your telephone and your website hosting first. Obviously there are other factors, such as rent, rates and staff wages, but without your business engine running smoothly your are potentially sabotaging your whole business which then causes redundancies or worse your whole business closing down.

Today I talk about overdue payments. Everyone has bills but there is a way to manage them by writing out a payment plan. It does not have to be anything fancy and it can be done with word and a table of columns (date, description, dr, cr, balance).

When writing your business plan consider that you may need extra money for an added expense not forecasted within the month. If this unexpected bill does not materialise one month let that payment roll over to the next month and so one so that when it eventually rears its ugly head you are prepared for it. Be strict with yourself and never go over your budget. If you manage to save as some months and in my case I do not get domain renewals every month but I still set myself a budget and I roll over that expense to the next month and so on.

Also highlight the most important bills you have to pay and prioritise these payments over others. This payment plan can also be incorporated into your personal expenses. At a glance each month you will then see what needs paying without receiving embarrassing reminder txt messages or phone calls.

I have added a payment plan template for your convenience below:

PAYMENT-PLAN

GDPR Case vs Google and Change.org

Mon, January 06, 2020 / Editor CMJUK / 0 Comments
GDPR Case vs Google and Change.org

GDPR on my mind. I have for the last couple of months started GDPR with Google and Change.org. The reason was that change.org published my name without my permission but later stated they had removed my name from their website. Two months on, my name is still showing for this particular petition I had signed and Google have said they will remove the listing from the UK only.

Well what about the rest of the world?

It infuriates me that my name is still showing even though I have asked many times to have the listing removed. It is causing me no end of distress and GDPR only applies to the EU countries and the UK.

I won’t go into specific detail as I do not want the publicity but I thought GDPR was a Global Regulation but apparantly it is not, so the rest of the world is an open can of worms, that can use your information anyway they want and there is nothing that you can do to stop them.

I just have to wait and see what happens but I am not happy that my name is still associated to a petition I supposedly had signed whereby the listing is still live.

I sign off with a heavy heart as no one should go through what I am going through. It is making my work much harder to do and people who I have spoken to have said I need to remove the listing ASAP.

My hands are tied for the minute. Will update this post when I get some more news.

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