General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

GDPR is a legal framework that sets guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information from individuals who live in and outside of the EU. There are 7 main principles of GDPR, they are -

Lawfulness, fairness and transparency.

Purpose limitation

Data minimisation

Accuracy

Storage Limitation

Integrity and confidentiality

Accountability

We have, when we first started lost potential clients as their perception is that our GDPR is maybe not as robust as the national mail network. So, let’s set the record straight. Hopefully by the end of this article perceptions might be changed……drastically.

It goes without saying that in the postal sector we are exposed every day to data such as names, addresses, postcodes and sender details. How we differ from the national network couldn’t be any further apart with regards GDPR and this is due to one thing technology.

At Local Postal Solutions we do not use any technology in any aspect of our delivery. This means we do not collect or store any information that is given to us in any form. It’s your customers information and apart from using it briefly as a reference to deliver it. We have absolutely no use or desire for this information because we are technologically “old school”. Nothing is collected so it’s absolutely impossible for us to have a data breach.

The same can’t be said for our national mail distributors. Virtually every item of mail is scanned by computers to automatically sort items. Every tracked parcel, every parcel with a 2d barcode (virtually every parcel) has the senders details and the recipients details on. Whenever, I get a delivery through the national network the first thing I do is tear the barcodes up, reducing the chances of my details getting into the wrong hands. Ever wondered why scammers nearly always use your bank name or the phone network you use as the first line in to their scam. It’s not guesswork, somewhere in the process data gets in to the wrong hands, and it’s not just data, it’s your data. Have you ever gave permission to the national mail network to use your details or to even store your details. Type “marketing data” followed by the name of a well known mail distribution company into your browser.

It starts with some mis-information as their is currently only around 28.7 million households in the UK, they claim to have the data for 30 million addresses in the UK. According to the opening paragraph they update this information through re-direction services, which means every household in Britain has at some point used re-direction services. I’d guess the majority of the population don’t even know it exists, let alone use it.

Please read the entire page, in a nutshell they are selling your information to businesses and we are completely oblivious to it. They might be selling it to business that meets a certain criteria, but once that information is released it can be passed on to anybody. Now, remember what I said earlier it’s not just your information, it’s also the senders information.

📞 Hi is that Joe Bloggs

📱 Yes it is

📞 I’m calling from Three about your phone upgrade

📱 Oh brilliant, I’ve been meaning to call you to upgrade

📞 Amazing 😎 let’s get you upgraded 💰 💰 💰

……………

📱 Police please, I need to report a theft

Nothing links people to products and services like mail does.

At Local Postal Solutions we don’t scan or record any of yours or your customers information. And we don’t sell your information as we have no information to sell. This also means we are never going to have a data breach of your information.

This makes our GDPR as safe as it can possibly be, your in safe hands