Seeff security breach - private client data shared with third parties without client consent
<div>On Tuesday 29th Oct 2024 I received a call on my cell phone from a company called Ooba Financial Services. I gathered they were trying to sell me insurance. I asked where they got my details from. The caller claimed to have been given my personal data, including my phone number, ID, credit rating data, banking details etc by Seeff in order for them to sell their products to Seeff clients. <br><br>I asked for the name of the person at Seeff who gave them all my confidential data since I certainly did not give Seeff the right to share my personal details with third parties. The sales agent at Ooba said Seeff is allowed to give this data to us because they own shares in our business. Shortly after this call - I messaged the Seeff agent I have been dealing with for the past 9 months, regarding this very worrying phone call. She mentioned I was the third complaint she had received in the last two days regarding Ooba. <br><br>As mentioned I did not give Seeff or any third party the right to divulge or use my confidential personal and financial data, and clearly it is impossible to say that someone at Ooba or Seeff has not passed on or more likely sold this client data to other interested parties. We therefore must assume that as a result of this business practice or security breach at Seeff, that all my personal information along with that of many other Seeff clients is now in the public domain. <br><br>Later on Tue 28th I wrote a letter of complaint to Seeff. The following day I received a phone call from someone claiming to be from a different company (the line was very noisy with service agents talking in the background but the name Ooba was not mentioned) - I asked are you from Ooba and eventually they almost reluctantly said yes. The caller said we have been told by Seeff to apologise for calling you. I mentioned, it is Seeff that should be apologizing! <br><br>The following day I received another call this time from a call center manager - again I could not hear the name of the company even after two repeat requests - there were a lot of people talking next to the caller and the caller spoke very quickly (almost deliberately too fast - it was almost impossible to hear the name of the company) and said she just wanted to apologize for them calling me. Again I said it is Seeff that should be apologising and not passing the buck and blaming Ooba! Assuming Ooba legally received this data from Seeff.<br><br> With rampant crime in S.A. – Seeff should treat this as a serious issue and not just ignore the fact that they are in breach POPIA regulations. To date almost a week later I am yet to receive a formal reply from Seeff. I therefore will be lodging a formal complaint with the SA Information Regulator next week.</div>