The curious things VM does with your data

[Anonymous]

An occasional series. Contributions welcome.

Inspirired by the richly creative VM "privacy" policy. 

[Anonymous]

A Virgin Media customer has just been emailed another random customer's full VM mobile phone contract including such sensitive personal data as their full name and phone number in another serious but casual breach of GDPR by VM. 

[Anonymous]

About this time last year online security specialists CTM360 advised its corporate clients to quarantine all inbound emails with the virginmedia.com email domain owing to the prevalence of CXO fraud (phishing targeting chief execs) coming from hacked VM email accounts. 

[Anonymous]

As part of this email security theme I had a look at my own Virgin Media email security settings and was concerned to see that the automatic logout period was set to a whole week!

I may be getting on a bit but TTBOMK I have never set foot in these settings to edit them.

VM is the default logout period really set at a week please (now significantly shortened at my end BTW)? 

[Anonymous]

In a stark contrast to three years ago when Virgin Media settled over four in every five cases (a huge 82%) taken by its fed up and exasperated broadband customers to Ombudsman Services VM are now taking its fight with its customers to the bitter end with just one in eight cases (13%) settled in the most recent official OS data available

Q4 2019:

 Q4 2022:

 

[Anonymous]

I'm sure it happens at some stage to many of us on here. You think you can perhaps help a few fellow customers, have a bit of light banter, and maybe, just maybe, help support the VM/LG machine, in a very modest way, from the ground up, in making some pretty straightforward customercentric improvements.

We'll, on this last point, it is clear that it would be as realistic a prospect as turning back the sea.

I am beginning to fold up my dealings with VM. This Cardiffman281 profile is part of that.

Cheers. 

[Cardiffman282]

If you think you have finally severed your ties with VM when you leave to join a competitor think again. VM will keep its grip on your vitals for two long years.

"Unless you ask us not to, we store your generic details (i.e. name, surname, contact details) for up to two years after you stop being our customer, to contact you just in case you change your mind". 

[asim18]

True, the amount of data collection is getting ridiculous now. The funny thing is everything is hacked already. Even things which havent been publicised have been hacked already or are easily hackable, yet corporations, instead of limiting/minimising data collection, they MAXimise their data collection to literally the MAXimum extent possible by law!?

It makes no sense.

I am sure in 50-60 years it will be illegal to live in a house with opaque walls. You will have to live in transparent houses.

The phrase "In order to use our services you agree that we will watch and listen to you while you defecate" will soon be common on all privacy policies.

[Cardiffman282]

If you are fortunate and persistent enough to actually be able to successfully register as a user of Liberty Global's subject access request fulfilment portal "Kite Works" (see previous posts on this thread) in order to download your Virgin Media data you might just find that VM haven't bothered to actually upload your data to it in the first place. 

[Cardiffman282]

Virgin Media do not appear to provide SSL protection to legacy email domains like ntlworld and blueyonder which might be one explanation for the high rate of "hacked email" posts on here for them 

 

[Cardiffman282]

Although another search suggests that ntlworld might after all be protected