Friday, December 04, 2009

A word to the wise...

This morning, around 8.30am, I was looking for a cheaper health insurance policy and did a bit of a search. I went to a website www.health-on-line.co.uk which requested certain information from me, which I wasn't too bothered about filling in as it was an email address and phone number plus my name and age. When I got to the bottom of the page, I noticed a little disclaimer which said that by clicking "proceed" I would be granting health-on-line the rights to contact me. Of course, I shut the page down without clicking.

At 10.30am, I received an email, thanking me for my interest in health-on-line. At 2pm, I received another. I have just had a phone call from a smarmy idiot who simply would not take on board how annoyed I am that their supposedly passive website has actively stolen and used my details... despite the fact that I did not click the link giving them permission to contact me.

It makes me wonder what other "respectable" websites use methods like this to steal details without the user noticing.