DPA – When Does It Apply?

DPA – When Does It Apply?

Hello! I have been doing alot of research on this topic and I’m looking to get a bit of clarity

In the context of a contact centre, inbound calls and emails…

In what scenarios does DPA kick in? By this I mean, when do I need to confirm that I am talking to the person they say they are? ie ask for information to be confirmed

What is the actual definition for where it is required? What are the trigger points?

Question asked by sara

Answer for DPA – When Does It Apply?

Does this article help? Data Protection Act, GDPR and Call Recording Laws in the UK

With thanks to Jonty

Answer for DPA – When Does It Apply?

Thanks Jonty

Not really I’m afraid as it does not give me a clear guidelines for live customer interactions.

I need to know at what point does the adviser have to ask security questions on calls/via emails   i.e what is the trigger point.

With thanks to sara

Answer for DPA – When Does It Apply?

The trigger point is normally at the moment when the caller requests personal information, such as an account balance, change of address or the like.  This is personal information and should not be given to a third party without their approval.  At this moment you need to be sure that you are speaking to the right person and so would need to validate them.

If they are just calling up for general advice, such as what are your charges, travel times etc then you would not need to validate them unless it only applies to their specific case.

What type of business do you operate.  I may be able to give you a more precise answer.

With thanks to Jonty

Answer for DPA – When Does It Apply?

Thanks Jonty

What about in the case of a technical helpdesk? For example if you have purchased a product (lets say an iPad App game) and you are stuck and need assistance. You call raise a support request, provide your game ID, email, name, tel number. A few days later you call back for an update and the agent has a fix for you. They then proceed to tell you what to do in the game to fix your issue…would you expect to be security checked before this happened?

I’m doing some research for an exam and this area is of particular interest to me.

With thanks to sara

Answer for DPA – When Does It Apply?

Personally in this case I would think that there is no need for a security check as the information that you are giving back is generic and not specific.

However if some of the information that you gave revealed personal information, like the caller asked for you to confirm their location, IP address, email address etc, then you would need to validate them.

With thanks to Jonty

Author: Jonty Pearce
Reviewed by: Robyn Coppell