“Last statement. Contact urgently. Urgently pay your overdue balance. We inform you that, due to your refusal to pay repeatedly for your debt with…, we proceed to inform you that we are close to executing your account, in the event (that) we do not have a positive response to your payments this week ” . This is part of a notification that Xavier Z. received in his email last October.
He claims that the debt being collected is not from him, but from a woman he does not know, for $1,259 with a store that sells electrical appliances. At first he thought it was a mistake and didn’t pay attention to the email, but then he started getting more notifications from the same person.
“I changed my number twice, but companies that offer services get it”: sanctions for mishandling of data will come into force in May 2023
“I contacted the number that appears in the email. I told them that I didn’t know that person and I didn’t know why those emails were coming to me. They told me that supposedly that person had put me as a reference and that, since she no longer answered calls and emails, for her to cancel the debt, well, they sent the notifications to me. I was also surprised that they had my full names, my ID number, and my phone number.”, he points out.
The collection company assured him that the reference data had supposedly been given by the person who owned the debt: “But I don’t know that woman. They got the information from somewhere else, from some database.”
Something similar happened to Nury (protected name). She works in a public entity, and she says that last November she received a notification at her personal email address and her work email address, collecting a debt from a person she does not know. She says that what is surprising is that the e-mail It was also copied to people in the human talent department of his work, including a collaborator who retired in 2020.
He indicates that he did a brief investigation to obtain the RUC of the collection company and its legal representative, and crossed information with the portal of the Superintendency of Companies. That company was linked, in turn, to other companies that had public procurement processes.
These companies have participated in public procurement processes to provide call center and manage collection or provide customer services. That is, they have had access to databases of public entities.
‘They call me and write to offer me services. I have not given my number’: one year into the law, personal data and financial information continues to leak in Ecuador
Nury replied to the email certifying that she does not know the person from whom the debt is being collected and that they refrain from sending her and her co-workers such notifications.
Meanwhile, Sergio O. says that his email has received notifications of a debt that a relative maintains with an electrical appliance store. However, he affirms that his acquaintance “of him never” gave information about him or contact information: “I am not your guarantor either. In fact, our relationship is distant and we do not maintain regular communication”. He had to call to stop those emails from reaching him, but he was left with the intrigue of knowing how they got the information from him.
These cases show that the leaking of personal data and its misuse by companies continue in Ecuador, despite the fact that the Organic Law for the Protection of Personal Data (LOPDP) was approved more than a year and six months ago.
Although the law is in force, the approval of its regulations, the appointment of the Superintendent of Personal Data Protection and that companies and institutions, public and private, establish the figure of the data protection delegate are still pending. However, this does not mean that the regulations cannot be applied and, especially, respected, according to analysts consulted.
“We see with a degree of concern that it is observed that many companies are betting on the non-existence of the regulation and the lack of a superintendent. It is very speculative right now to talk about a number, but there are a large number of companies that are regulated by this law and that are not adapted to it.”, says Diego Beltrán Bastidas, lawyer and partner at the firm Solines & Asociados and a professor specializing in data protection at the SEK International University.
Not only should you demand that the data be deleted in the databases of companies in which you are not a customer, but you should also ask the companies and entities of which you are a user to make correct and responsible use of them. information.
What is the profile of a data protection officer? A specialization that will be in great demand by companies in Ecuador
Although the LOPDP is in force, its sanctions may only be applied from May 2023, since the Assembly approved a two-year moratorium for companies and entities to adapt to the regulations.
“The moratorium was aimed at giving time to establish processes that are not easy and are, in certain cases, expensive. In addition, the objective is not to sanction, but rather to respect the law. But I do believe that the moratorium should have been much more progressive; For example, give a maximum period for the Executive to send the short list, another for the issuance of the regulations, that is, establish deadlinesBeltran says.
For Cecilia Parra, expert in handling personal data and country manager of Pridatect in Ecuador, it would have been ideal for the country to start a less rigid regulation or with fewer points to assess, because the Ecuadorian culture is very different from the European one.
“For example, in the United States the law seeks to protect the data, but they also give businessmen the opportunity to work with the data as long as the situation is well informed. In Ecuador we should have started one or two steps less and gradually increased the rigidity of the regulations”, he points out. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
