Two days after an emergency C section I was in hospital when an unknown woman appeared at my bedside with a form. She starts taking details & I eventually gather enough wits about me to realise she's asking things she should know, & I ask "hang on, are you not hospital staff?".
She mumbled uncomfortably for a while before giving me the bag of goodies ("you can have them anyhow"), an incomplete form & leaving.
You know what saved us from ending up on that database? We hadn't picked a name yet. She couldn't fill in the form without the name. The lull as she thought about what to do gave me time to think.
@eclectech this is absolutely appalling on so many levels. New mothers should not have to worry about data protection while lying IN THEIR HOSPITAL BED.
@ouinne It is. I like to think I would have spotted what was happening at some point even without the no-name lull, but I'm not sure. I am fairly sure if I'd filled in that form we'd still be unsubscribing from crap from it now.
@Rhube@helma Yeah, I was just thinking about this, as we were in in the EU at the time (baby is now teenager!) but I think they would have claimed informed consent. They did get fined eventually too (the starting point for this thread was changes they're trying to make to UK law which would make it more difficult to be fined). Don't know if they've changed their practices at all as a result.
@eclectech wow that's a new low. though she was probably trying to get u on the sales database, not ur baby. people with new kids are the target audience of many many companies....
@gi124 Oh, they definitely wanted me, but they would have had their details too, and being able to fill in the child's details was part of the process. She didn't know what to do without them.
@doctormo@gi124 In normal circumstances I am with you, but 2 days post-op, as a new parent, and probably 3 days since a proper nights sleep, even that is asking a lot!
@gi124@doctormo Haha, thank you! This is me holding a serious grudge though, I was just reminded of it because of the current proposed changes to data protection. The baby is now a teenager, and (I think) appropriately cautious with personal information! Also entertainingly dismissive of advertising. It gives one hope.
@gi124@doctormo Hah! I promise I've not been dwelling on it all this time! It was reading an article earlier today about Bounty being fined that triggered the memory and annoyed me again!
The reason I was reminded about it is that the UK Government is trying to water down our ability to hold companies like Bounty accountable. The Open Rights Group have a campaign fighting it.
@eclectech Thanks for this! 👍
And sorry to hear you were prayed upon in such a dusgusting way.
These bastards have been screwing our data out of us for years now, and it's just getting worse.
I will be signing.
@eclectech one of my "hero" moments when recounting our birth story to other parents is that, the day after my c-section, I was on a sleepless hormone rollercoaster and ugly-cried so hard at the Bounty lady that she went to get a member of staff, and did not dare try again the next day.
@eclectech I think she came onto the ward with all the dads at 10am. Which is part of why I was such a mess - most dads got kicked out at 8pm, but I was in a side room and Steve didn't leave until nearer midnight, so he didn't come back until about noon.
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