Am I being a snow-flake?

9db3xj7z41fs5u · 09-12-2020 05:44PM #1

Hi,

So I ordered a calendar for a sick and frail loved-one. The order took 2 weeks extra to arrive. It arrived today. I found pictures of random toddlers in it. I contacted the company straight away. They did the usual I am sorry for your experience and we will send you a new calendar free of charge. I notified them that photos of children are classified as sensitive materials under GDPR. I asked them to confirm that they would notify the other involved party that their images had been erroneously shared with an unknown third party. I also asked them to disclose if my images had been shared, as they include pictures of children also. They said “but our customers always just send back the calendar”. I asked them would they be performing a risk assessment. They ignored this. This also breaches child protection. All I want is that they look into their procedures for handling sensitive materials and report a risk assessment to the data-commissioner. I hate the idea of potential creeps getting the photos of kids, and do not feel that this should happen.

It is their oblivion to data protection, and the fact that these images are dear and personal that annoyed me most.

My best-friend says that I am a snow-flake and get over it.

What is the boards opinion?

Thanks Guys!

Mike3549 · 09-12-2020 05:53PM

Omg, what did i just read. You are overreacting, way OTT, obviously those pics of toddlers had their parents permission and so on, and i think thats not how GDPR works. And you should return the item if you are getting a replacement, just because you dont like, it doesnt mean you can keep it for free

blue note · 09-12-2020 05:59PM

Complete overreaction. The company made an innocent, honest mistake. You should apologise to them for reacting like that.

And I'm 100% serious, no-one should have to put up with listening to all of that. Takes balls to admit you were wrong, but if I was in that company I'd respect you if you did apologise. Whereas now I'd be telling people about this a$$hole customer I had to deal with.

utyh2ikcq9z76b · 09-12-2020 06:01PM

Watch some Karen videos on youtube, that's you!

9db3xj7z41fs5u · 09-12-2020 06:04PM

Gavin Chubby Asteroid wrote: »

Watch some Karen videos on youtube, that's you!

I am not a woman

09-12-2020 06:07PM

I don't think the above posters realise that these are customised calenders. The customer sends their pictures and the calander is printed using these. The OP received someone else's calander with their family photos. And OP is concerned that their own personal photos may have been sent in calander form to another person.

I would continue to annoy the hell out of the company, they don't seem to be taking this very seriously, when it's a pretty amazingly stupid mess up. They sound like they need to cop on to themselves, not the OP!

TheadoreT · 09-12-2020 06:08PM

You're creating issues where there is none. Mistakes happen all the time, they promptly rectified it by saying they'll ship your actual calendar out... move on.

Tork · 09-12-2020 06:13PM

Child protection? It'd be one thing if you were sent pics of child porn or something but you weren't. They're just random toddlers who I assume look just like every other toddler out there. You don't know who they are where they live?

Speak Now · 09-12-2020 06:14PM

Is this a joke? Just send back the calendar.

Vangoghslow · 09-12-2020 06:15PM

Yes.

blue note · 09-12-2020 06:18PM

Deleted User wrote: »

I don't think the above posters realise that these are customised calenders. The customer sends their pictures and the calander is printed using these. The OP received someone else's calander with their family photos. And OP is concerned that their own personal photos may have been sent in calander form to another person.

I would continue to annoy the hell out of the company, they don't seem to be taking this very seriously, when it's a pretty amazingly stupid mess up. They sound like they need to cop on to themselves, not the OP!

I realised. It was a mistake and as long as they apologised and tried to fix it I'd be fine about it.

I'm my opinion the OP should apologise to the calendar company for reacting as he or she did. Completely out of proportion to their mistake.

frag420 · 09-12-2020 06:19PM

Barbara Fresh Vender wrote: »

I am not a woman

Ok Ken...

KathleenGrant · 09-12-2020 06:19PM

I don't think you are being a snowflake at all. The most precious things in our lives are our children and i wouldn't like to think of pictures of my children/grandchildren being sent to people i didn't know. It's not like I'd lose sleep about it but i don't think it would sit right with me.

Purple Mountain · 09-12-2020 06:20PM

It's bad production, not a child protection alarm bells issue.
Facebook, Instagram etc are all full of innocent pictures of kids, adults etc. It's no different than you viewing someone else's account online and seeing other children.
I'd absolutely take the offer of the free replacement and probably wouldn't use them again but it's just a mistake.
Send back the calendar, look for the cost of return postage, got your replacement and move on.

Plumbthedepths · 09-12-2020 06:20PM

You should have listened to your friend.

9db3xj7z41fs5u · 09-12-2020 06:24PM

There were normal pictures of my family (some under 12) on the beach in their togs. I would just like clarification that these pictures have been sent back to the company, and this doesn’t happen again. I don’t know who now possesses the images.

I have sent back the calendar. I do not know who has my calendar

I just don’t want this to happen for other families

eviltwin · 09-12-2020 06:25PM

Barbara Fresh Vender wrote: »

There were normal pictures of my family (some under 12) on the beach in their togs. I would just like clarification that these pictures have been sent back to the company, and this doesn’t happen again. I don’t know who now possesses the images.

I just don’t want this to happen for other families

If you are so worried about the content of the photos you sent why would you use them in the first place

A mistake was made, it happens. What exactly do you want this company to do?

9db3xj7z41fs5u · 09-12-2020 06:30PM

eviltwin wrote: »

If you are so worried about the content of the photos you sent why would you use them in the first place

A mistake was made, it happens. What exactly do you want this company to do?

They were just normal beach photos of my family together that my loved-one would love (she was a beach lifeguard in her youth and gave us all a love of the beach). I did not expect them to be sent to a random person

They cannot change what happened. I just want them to acknowledge that they will look into their handling of pictures of kids and come up with a procedure to reduce the risk of the images being sent to the wrong person in future. I also want to know if my family pictures were returned to the company

The lady that I dealt with was lovely and I gave her good feedback. I just don’t want my personal family pics being sent astray.

I don’t care about the replacement calendar (it won’t arrive in time for Christmas now). From reading her response, she told me that this happens fairly regularly. That is why I was annoyed

triona1 · 09-12-2020 06:34PM

Id be more concerned about where your calendar with your pictures went ðŸ˜®

ted1 · 09-12-2020 06:36PM

Without seen the images I find everyone’s reaction to be puzzling.
No one knows the intimacy of the photos used by either the OP or the toddlers parents.

As a company that would handle very personal and intimate photos I find their Reaction concerning. They have legal obligations to report such incidents. It’s part of everyday business.

09-12-2020 06:37PM

How is this hard to understand? The company aren't taking this seriously, the comment that "customers always send the calenders back" is hardly reassuring that they're taking their mistake seriously and intend to take measures to stop it happening again. In fact it sounds like they don't even feel they've done anything wrong. I'd want the company to at least act like they'll review their procedures and maybe be a little more efficient. If nothing else it's a pain in the hole having to send the calender back and wait for the one you ordered. It's not like the OP is threatening to take them to court.

Bubbaclaus · 09-12-2020 06:39PM

The only result of escalating a complaint about this will be someone in the company getting fired for an innocent error.

9db3xj7z41fs5u · 09-12-2020 06:41PM

I don’t know whether to tell my family about the incident. Since it is their children in the pictures, I think that they have a right to know. I basically gathered our family WhatsApp pics, and made them into a calendar because my loved-one has cognitive impairment, and I thought that this would put a smile on her face. Now I feel stupid and wish that I got her some nice chocolates instead

ted1 · 09-12-2020 06:42PM

Bubbaclaus wrote: »

The only result of escalating a complaint about this will be someone in the company getting fired for an innocent error.

Or the company put in place policies so they don’t make such f@@k ups.

If the policies aren’t in a pace then they can’t really be fired.
The company could be fined for failing to report GDPR breaches

9db3xj7z41fs5u · 09-12-2020 06:43PM

Bubbaclaus wrote: »

The only result of escalating a complaint about this will be someone in the company getting fired for an innocent error.

I agree. But this is not the employee’s fault at all! This is a problem with company procedure. They had a turnover of 180 million last year (they are not some small business aiming to make a living). They can afford to do a risk assessment. The poor employee was probably working a long day for pittance. The fact is that it happens regularly, the company is the one at fault

Bubbaclaus · 09-12-2020 06:47PM

ted1 wrote: »

Or the company put in place policies so they don’t make such f@@k ups.

If the policies aren’t in a pace then they can’t really be fired.
The company could be fined for failing to report GDPR breaches

I don't think GDPR would apply here, unless you can point me to the exact part of the regulation that does, which I may have overlooked?

Jequ0n · 09-12-2020 06:48PM

Barbara Fresh Vender wrote: »

I don’t know whether to tell my family about the incident. Since it is their children in the pictures, I think that they have a right to know. I basically gathered our family WhatsApp pics, and made them into a calendar because my loved-one has cognitive impairment, and I thought that this would put a smile on her face. Now I feel stupid and wish that I got her some nice chocolates instead

And what good would that do?
So you can all scream at each other in panic over potentially nothing?
Just get a paper calendar, print off photos, glue them in and move on.

9db3xj7z41fs5u · 09-12-2020 06:49PM

Bubbaclaus wrote: »

I don't think GDPR would apply here, unless you can point me to the exact part of the regulation that does, which I may have overlooked?

Childrens’ pictures (as distinct from adults’ pictures) are considered sensitive materials under GDPR. That is why the schools ask us fill in so much paperwork about using the kids’ images now

Jequ0n · 09-12-2020 06:49PM

Barbara Fresh Vender wrote: »

I agree. But this is not the employee’s fault at all! This is a problem with company procedure. They had a turnover of 180 million last year (they are not some small business aiming to make a living). They can afford to do a risk assessment. The poor employee was probably working a long day for pittance. The fact is that it happens regularly, the company is the one at fault

You don’t know if it happens regularly, the employee might just have tried to calm you down

9db3xj7z41fs5u · 09-12-2020 06:54PM

Jequ0n wrote: »

You don’t know if it happens regularly, the employee might just have tried to calm you down

I maintained my politeness throughout. I do not think that taking it out on some innocent employee would have helped the situation. I just asked her to confirm for me would they perform a risk assessment and could they confirm if my pictures had been sent to the wrong person/would they notify the other person about the mistake. She said “but people just normally send us back the calendar” (As in they send it back and leave it at that. I already did send the calendar back). She said that she could not answer my questions. She was sweet and said that she had nieces and would be upset if it happened to them. I thanked her and asked for it to be escalated to the relevant department. I gave her 10/10 feedback, because she did all that she could within her remit

Tork · 09-12-2020 06:55PM

Barbara Fresh Vender wrote: »

I don’t know whether to tell my family about the incident. Since it is their children in the pictures, I think that they have a right to know. I basically gathered our family WhatsApp pics, and made them into a calendar because my loved-one has cognitive impairment, and I thought that this would put a smile on her face. Now I feel stupid and wish that I got her some nice chocolates instead

I've heard of mums and dads being confronted by other parents just because they took photos of their own kids in playgrounds and play areas. I'm all for protecting children from predators but there is nothing inherently dodgy about children in their own right.

Other people's photos are the most uninteresting thing on the planet if you don't know anybody in them. If somebody else has ended up with your photos, what exactly do you think they'll do with them? I'd say they mostly would want a refund

Am I being a snow-flake?

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