Prudential, one of the UK's leading life insurance provider, has
been forced to apologise to 250,000 customers for revealing
personal data as a result of a "serious error of judgement" by its
marketing department.
The company wrote to with-profits policy holders informing them
they would be receiving a bonus this year. Unfortunately, the
company chose to send the good news using postcards, rather than in
a sealed envelope.
The postcards were effectively an advance notice of the bonus,
and did not contain any specific details about each customer's
policy. However, they clearly stated that the recipients of the
postcards have "invested in our with-profits fund".
On BBC Radio 4's Money Box programme on Saturday, Prudential's
Director of Marketing, Roger Ramsden, apologised to customers for
the mailing. He promised that he had taken steps to ensure that a
mailing of this sort would not happen again.
It has been reported that the matter has been referred to the
Office of the Information Commissioner.
