|
Surely the database belongs to HSE ?
That was a question asked on the forum recently. Actually it is a good question. Indeed an excellent and crucial question. We believe responsibility rests with the particular company that has the remit from the HSE, as the currently approved body, to maintain a register on behalf of the HSE. Obvious we know.
Clearly no RGI would have consented to the information being released to another company, even one within the same CORGI Group. That is a fundamental betrayal of trust by trustcorgi.com. Regardless of legalities, ethics enters the equation.
Even if RGI gave their blessing, that does not in any way mean the recipients of CORGI's mass mailing have consented. They cannot have given consent, nor in any way be deemed to have given consent.
Remember this is not the first time. We once had to instruct CORGI in writing to stop giving confidentail information to outside third parties. That includes Thomson Local. Once they get your name they get dug-in like ticks on a sheep.
The next step, given an impotent industry, would be for CORGI to start selling those details to third parties outside the CORGI Group. We would suggest it is inevitable. No assurance from an already corrupt and discredited CORGI heirarchy would ever convince us otherwise.
CORGI
There are several companies, including the CORGI Group. But who and what are they? Well you already know what they are and Companies House obliged by telling us who they are. So we can now tell you who they are, if you download the pdf files opposite. That information has not been altered in any way and the files are write-protected.
Now you know who you can issue proceedings against, if you seriously object to this betrayal. Or, you can simply write expressing your concern.
Trade and Professional Associations
Obviously that is really a job for Trade and Professional Associations. That is what they are paid for. What is yours doing about this sordid affair, if anything. Stroking their chins and looking at one another, to see if someone else has the little bit of backbone required to see justice done.
That must on this occasion include the HVCA. They are essentially employers and one wonders if they are aware they may lose business because CORGI are sending competitor information to their customers. Staggering but true. Unbelievable but true.
What they should be doing immediately:
- Tell members not to GWN anything until further notice, and
- Tell members to pass the address and appliance information to their Association, and
- Inform the Secretary of State about action being taken with clear reasons why, and
- Contact consumer groups
Has any of them got the metal to do that ? Failings
As the GWN database is directly related to CORGI’s remit with the HSE, it must therefore fall within the influence of the Government. We can therefore announce that we are serving notice this weekend on the Secretary of State concerned. We are loathe to do it, but simply have no other democratic option.
Yes there is clearly a data protection issue but that could take weeks or months, sat in the queue. Not good enough. CORGI must be stopped immediately. We honestly cannot recall a more blatant act of information piracy. Besides there are other issues the Information Commissioner does not have a remit to cover.
The mpsonline is for all practical purposes useless. But we may discover that because of some fluke in the way regulations are written, or cronyism, that CORGI cannot be touched by the Information Commissioner, however much staff there may see this as a clear breach. On this occasion however there does not seem to be an escape clause for CORGI.
The issue of course is not just data protection. That is only part of the equation. They are blatantly delivering your customers to other, already well-heeled contractors. That is not going to happen, it already has happened.
The junk mail may suggest contradictory advice to a customer, when you, knowing the customer's home, would not even consider products advertised.
What other information is CORGI selling under the counter or through the back door. If they will stoop to this level in public, their corrupt behaviour cannot possibly have any limitations. Trust in CORGI has now evaporated completely.
CORGI must have known what the response would be, done their homework and decided to live with any short-term discomfort. After all they have got away with murder so far, why not this time. Are you going to let that happen.
Remedy
Obviously the Information Commissioner cannot reach any other conclusion than CORGI having betrayed a trust and legal obligation. Sanctions must be imposed.
There is no appeal mechanism whatsoever structured into CORGI registration. The HSE could not care less, otherwise they would have seen to it that there was. Psychological health and safety is not in their book. Therefore writing to the HSE is pointless. They too have a history of dithering and stalling.
If every RGI wrote to CORGI and instructed them to stop and confirm that they will stop, CORGI would be obliged to, as they have been forced to do in the past. That would however require unified effort and given past dithering of the older Trade and Professional Associations, an unlikely scenario. Hence the reason the Secretary of State is the only democratic option.
The Government must intervene to prevent CORGI using that name, which should belong to the nation, in connection with their other business interests. What else they do is their business but from now on it must be kept entirely separate in every respect.
Advertisers
Ask CORGI how many unique human beings they have registered as competent to carry out any sort of work. Note unique.
- Ask them to disclose and separate dual registrations.
- Ask them to deduct any people who do not have any modules for domestic work.
- Ask them to deduct people not registered in their own name.
- Ask them how many copies of TGI go into offices with no gas personnel.
The final figure will be a lot less, probably half, the figures they may quote. |
