Ask Slashdot: Why Do Firms Leak Personal Details In Plain Text?

An anonymous reader writes "Having entered my personal details (full real name, home address) to websites with an 'https://' prefix in order to purchase goods, I am still being sent emails from companies (or their agents) which include, in plain text, those same details I have entered over a secure connection. These are often companies which are very keen to tell you how much they value your privacy and how they will not pass your details on to third parties. What recourse does one have to tell them to desist from such behaviour whilst still doing business with them if their products are otherwise desirable? I email the relevant IT team as a matter of course to tell them it's not appropriate (mostly to no avail), but is there any legislation — in any territory — which addresses this?"

Comments

Re:Name and address?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well since it's no big deal, what is your name and address?

Re:Are you daft?

[Quasimodem]

Your payment is sacred. All other, not so much. (Fixed)

Re:Are you daft?

[lxs]

Because every byte is sacred,
Every byte is great!
If a byte gets wasted,
God gets quite irate.

Let the user spill theirs
On the dusty ground
God shall make them pay
For each byte that can't be found.

Every byte is wanted,
Every byte is good.
Every byte is needed,
In your neighborhood.

Re:depends

[AmiMoJo]

They see it as providing better customer service. Instead of an impersonal bulk email they can send you an impersonal form email with the name you entered at the top of it, complete with the incorrect capitalization that so many people seem to enjoy. Why make you go look for your account number when they can just send it to you in every single communication.