GDPR query

Dublinandy3

Hi all,

Not sure this is the right category, but I am the consumer so took a guess.

Contacted both bird gaid and electric Ireland for copies of my bills for the last five years.

Both are accounts that are no longer active. Electric Ireland replied and sent me what I requested, grand. Bord gais replied telling me that due to GDPR they can no give details out for achieved accounts. They didn't go into any specifics, just said GDPR.

My question is, which company is right? Electric Ireland either broke gdpr regulations by giving me the data, or, Bord Gais did by not giving me the data.

I have replied to Bord Gais asking them which regulations specifically stop them giving me my data, along with asking the for a SAR on what data they hold, comms etc. Just at the moment it's around a 5 to 10 day wait on responses so just wanted to ask in here to see if anyone had any knowledge, they both can't be right, or can they?

This is exactly what Bord Gais said to me:

Unfortunately due to GDPR we no longer offer copies of bills for archived accounts. I am sorry for any inconvenience this may cause

Jim_Hodge

There's no GDPR if it's your own account,

YellowLead

They both have different internal data protection policies. GDPR doesn’t include specifics and a each company will have their own application of it.

It could be due to whatever their retention periods are - maybe they delete historic account information after a certain period of time.

Clareman

Question here is why would Bord Gais need to hold onto you bills once it was an archived account? They are doing the right thing by GDPR by not making the details accessible to you (assuming they are telling the truth). SAR is the right way to go about things.

For archived, possibly read deleted. Deleted due to their GDPR policies.

Clareman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119895679#Comment_119895679

If a customer comes in for a request for a copy of their bills and it's no longer an active account, it's conceivable that the account is no longer accessible by "normal" customer service people, why would you leave old customer account details (which could include medical information) freely available, good practice would be to archive the data. A GDPR SAR request could make a lot more information available but that's just because of the segmentation of data.

Dublinandy3

Thanks all, appreciate all the responses.

Cabaal

How old is the account they are saying is archived?

walterking

Bord gais have decided that a closed account that has been fully settled and where there is no dispute does not require any data to be kept.

Electric Ireland have a different policy and think that the information should be kept for x years

Both are adhering fully to GDPR

Dublinandy3

2018