As some of you know, I moved to a new apartment in January, and with that obviously came a bunch of subscriptions (as in, “electricity bill” kind of subscriptions). I had the option to choose between a bunch of different electricity companies but ended up just going with the default one (E.ON).
After a few months I got a phone call from E.ON. where they basically offered me a better than the default deal, which I accepted, and then today the contract arrived. Now… not a lot of people read these, right? I tend to give them a skim at least, to see if something insane appears and sometimes I hit the jackpot.
“The personal details of you that we have obtained are necessary to accomplish our part of this agreement and to accomodate your needs as a customer. Your name and address may also be used for marketing by E.ON. as well as by companies with which E.ON. is cooperating. Your personal information may also be used in educational purposes.” (bold emphasis mine)
So uh… not thinking there was much hope, I still decided to just email them,
“Hi,
According to the contract you sent to my home, “(the above quote)”
I do NOT want you to use my personal information for marketing, and I most definitely don’t want you to give it out to other companies.
Sincerely,
-Kalle Alm (my personal id number).”
Within an hour I got a response which to my surprise went:
“Hi,
Thanks for your email.
We have registered that you do not want us to use your personal information for marketing purposes.
Please contact us again [blabla].”
I didn’t think it’d be that easy, but there you have it. Summary: read through your contracts! You might end up with a company like E.ON. who thinks people are too lazy to read through this “boring” stuff!