Chat Function and Data Protection
 

How much Information is it reasonable for an agent to request in order to pass data protection when using the chat function ?
This is what I was asked for today , (annoyingly having already been asked for some of it automatically ) .


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I had already provided the first lot which he confirmed was all correct . I declined the passport information asking why he needed so much information. OK he said and proceeded

They would probably be OK with the last few digits of your passport. Tricky, but the legislation in this space sides more with BA than with annoyed customers. Moreover BA has had quite a number of run-ins with data handling, and has been fined for this. Now you may say that shows the futility of the process, but it's a sort of back history that won't persuade BA to ease off on these controls. easyJet also asks for a lot of information. Loganair doesn't but they seem to recognise their customers by accent.

Calling gold guest list it’s exec club number and name, then the 3 security questions, first two are always email address, billing address and then the final security question seems to randomly be either passport number, last 4 digits and expiry date of saved card, am I travelling alone and very occasionally a nominee on the account.

I presume once you’d answered 3, the agent mistakenly carried on through the list and when you declined to answer the additional extra question about your passport number they realised they had checked enough so they could carry on with your query.

This is just lazy IT on BA's part. If you log in to the website and initiate a chat, that should be treated as authenticated. So many companies choose to implement chat like a phone call however. And if BA don't trust their website auth, they have bigger issues.

It just made me sigh rather.
After asking to be connected to an agent the system asked me for a number of personal details that the agent asked me for again .
The list of questions just kept growing, the answers to some I had to look up of course .
There were long pauses between everything as though they were dealing with several customers at once .
This all to sort out a problem of BAs making : missing double BAH TPS