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20071129 Thursday November 29, 2007

A whiff of Garlik

Ages ago I signed up for a free trial of an "online identity protection" service provided by Garlik. They have an impressive list of managers and advisors , including the founders of online bank Egg, a CS professor at a UK university, and Tim Berners-Lee - whoever he is ;-)

Their website describes their service as follows:

At Garlik we believe you have the right to control and protect your personal data. With our range of products and services we aim to:
  • Give power back to you. We give you the tools to manage your personal information.
  • Help you keep track. You can monitor your personal information online.
  • Stop data abuse. With total visibility of your online data profile there's less chance of abuse.
  • Keep you in the spotlight. Data security doesn't mean hiding yourself away. You decide how much or how little of your information is available online.
  • Offer you comfort and assurance. With your personal data under control you can use the web without the worry.

I haven't used it very much, so I thought I'd close my account. I couldn't find any obvious way of doing this, but what I did find in their 'Help' pages is this:

What happens to my details if I cancel my subscription?

Your information will be held on our database in the event that you wish to re-subscribe at a later date. But we will no longer search for or retrieve new data about you.

Which looks to me like it is in breach of UK Data Protection law - something I am mildly clued up on after my recent clash with Facebook. And it is all the more ironic that Garlik claim they are going to help you protect your online data.

Update

I emailed Garlik to point out the discrepancy between the above and the following statement in their Privacy policy:

To request that we close your account and remove your information from the Garlik service, please send your request to XXXXXX-AT-garlik.com. Please send your request using an email account that you have registered with Garlik in your name. You will receive a response to requests sent to XXXXXX-AT-garlik.com within three business days of our receiving it.

I've just got the following reply from them:

Thank you for your email and for drawing our attention to the discrepancy in the wording between our Privacy Policy and the FAQ in our original trial version of DataPatrol.

Our actual policy is in line with the wording in our Privacy Policy and upon cancellation of your subscription your personal information will be removed from the Garlik service. We will therefore update our FAQ accordingly.

A quick, reasonable and totally satisfactory response, and a complete contrast to the attitude of Facebook. Well done Garlik!

Posted by alanbur ( Nov 29 2007, 10:44:28 PM GMT ) Permalink Comments [0]