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Floodline - Vodafone sharing my personal information with the Government without notifying me

mostest
1: Seeker

Hi there. 

I received an unwarranted text message from Floodline, a gov.uk flood warning service stating that I live in an area at risk of flooding and that I've been opt-ed in to this free service that will notify me if there's a flood warning in my area. It pointed to a privacy link www.gov.uk/flood-warning-auto-opt-in-info.

I googled and called this number on the Environmental Agency website, Floodline on 0345 988 1188, to find out why I got this text because I didn't sign up and asked how they received my mobile phone number. 

 

The representative said I must be with Vodafone because Vodafone had recently provided them their customer billing address and mobile number information. This raises lots of privacy alarms and I have lots of questions. Is information sharing with the government without my consent legal (when it's not criminal investigation related)? Is automatically opting into this service legal? Please respond if you've also received this text. 

1 REPLY 1

TJ
Community Manager (Retired)
Community Manager (Retired)

Hey @mostest, thanks for getting in touch. I've checked the GOV.UK website and found this statement:

"In the last 3 years, we’ve sent over 3 million text messages directly to users, alerting them to flooding in their area. By working closely with mobile phone carriers EE, O2 and Three (and soon Vodafone) we have proactively registered over 1 million properties in areas at risk of flooding."

It looks like this has been a campaign for a few years now and we've recently joined, if you'd no longer like to have these texts; you'll be able to opt out via message.