Changes to improve regular text giving opposed by data protection regulator
Howard Lake | 9 January 2014 | News
The Information Commissioners Office has opposed proposals that would relieve charities of the requirement to remind donors each month that they can cancel regular gifts made via their mobile phones.
Under the code of practice set by PhonepayPlus. the body that regulates premium rate phone services (PRS), phone operators must send a monthly ‘STOP’ reminder text to all regular subscribers.
But in a consultation that closed in December 2013, PhonepayPlus recommended ‘disapplying’ this rule for operators offering PRS-based charity donations.
STOP or SKIP monthly
Instead, operators would send a different monthly text – the ‘SKIP’ reminder – that would allow donors to suspend their donation for a month. Skipping three successive months would trigger a STOP reminder, and donors would be automatically unsubscribed if they did not respond to the STOP text within 24 hours.
The consultation followed an extensive field trial of the proposals, which PhonepayPlus had set up after it was approached by a provider requesting changes to the code of practice.
While the proposals have been welcomed by the Institute of Fundraising as a “positive step towards developing flexibility with regards to text donations”, the ICO wants the monthly ‘STOP’ option to continue.
The data protection regulator describes the proposals to ‘disapply’ the monthly STOP text rule as a “move from the previously-required more privacy friendly approach to a less privacy friendly approach”.
It adds: “We are disappointed to note that the intention is to move away from a method where consumers are more informed and in control and are frequently reminded of their ability to stop their donation subscriptions.”
Although one of the reasons for instituting the changes is that some donors who received the STOP text mistook it for an instruction to cancel their donation – and did so – the ICO says it is “unsure” why information about the STOP command could not be included alongside the SKIP option each month.
However, in its response the consultation, the Institute of Fundraising says the pilot, which ran from March 2012 until the end of August 2013, provides “sufficient evidence to show that donors were not significantly confused or put off by the proposed changes”.
A spokesperson for PhonepayPlus said it was considering the responses to the consultation and will make an announcement “in due course”. No date has been set for implementation of the proposed changes.
Photo: Cymba Mobile Marketing on Flickr.com
Advertisement
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.