The other day, a highly emotional customer called the technical department looking for help in identifying the identity of someone who was harassing them through mobile phone calls. The person had the number and claimed that the police had advised them to contact their mobile network as it would take them a long time to find the identity of the person using their liason officer. Now, anyone who works with the public will know that it’s illegal to share information of that nature with anyone due to GDPR regulations. Of course, this customer refused to accept that and left a scathing survey claiming how unhelpful I was.
The question is, could there have been an alternative outcome? The answer is no because that customer had one agenda, and that was to find out the identity of their tormentor. Anything short of that was not going to make them happy. The thing is that you can’t blame them for their behaviour because they were desperate to end their torture.
Imagine if I’d found a name to match the customer’s number, and the customer tracked down someone with that name and killed them? Would I be changed with abetting a murderer?
That, of course, is why GDPR regulations exist. They’re designed to protect everyone. The guilty and the innocent.
I’ll leave you with one final thought. People will always be disappointed with the truth that they don’t like.
