I've been doing that too and am not sure if it's necessary or not either. I think I've stopped doing it out of pure laziness. Come to think of it if people want it can't they get your name and address from somewhere as simple as the electoral register? Yeah what a bonehead I am.
Bank statements and utility bills are fairly sensitive documents, because a lot of companies treat them as proof of ID. Shredding them is a sensible precaution against identity fraud.
You should definitely register, because it's a significant factor in your credit rating. You can choose to opt out of the open register; if you do, your details will only be made available to election officials, government departments and credit rating agencies. If you are on the open register, your details can be bought by anyone.
>>4492 FWIW, I get all sorts of shit like credit card offers even though I have always opted out, and even in one place when I wasn't even registered to vote.
There are a lot of ways for your name and address to end up on the market. If you ever neglect to tick the "do not share my details with third parties" when buying something online or setting up a subscription, your details are on thee market and will be continually sold and re-sold.
>>4492 Absolute trash. Why is this even a thing? Are there people out there who like all their details up for grabs? Why isn't it an opt-in system? Fucking cunts.
>>4497 I guess they just expect people to be literate enough to read the letters from the local authority that come through the door every year that explain this. Stupid eh?
His dumb nan can opt-out by post or phone. Details of the local Electoral Registration Office should be included in the Household Enquiry Form, which is sent out to every household in the UK every year.
Whenever you make a new registration, there's a box on the form (item 10) explaining how the open register works and offering you the choice to opt-out. There's also an explanation of anonymous registration, for people who have legitimate reason to believe that being listed even on the closed register is a threat to their safety.
It's more complicated than "the government is selling your address to junk-mail companies". The open register is hugely useful to all sorts of organisations for all sorts of reasons. If you need a reasonably accurate list of every household in the UK, there aren't a lot of other options. It's a vital resource for any organisation that needs to do macro-level planning and plays a key role in most identity verification and risk management systems.
Users of the open register include:
businesses checking the identity and address details of people who apply for their services such as insurance, goods hire and property rental, as well as when they shop online
businesses selling age-restricted goods or services, such as alcohol and gambling online, to meet the rules on verifying the age of their customers
charities and voluntary agencies, for example to help maintain contact information for those who have chosen to donate bone marrow and to help people separated by adoption to find each other
charities, to help with fundraising and contacting people who have made donations
debt-collection agencies when tracing people who have changed address without telling their creditors
direct-marketing firms when maintaining their mailing lists
landlords and letting agents when checking the identity of potential tenants
local councils when identifying and contacting residents
online directory firms to help users of the websites find people, such as when reuniting friends and families
organisations tracing and identifying beneficiaries of wills, pensions and insurance policies
private-sector firms to verify details of job applicants.
>>4505 If by 'bad practice' you are still whinging about the system not being opt-in, doing that would instantly make the data useless. Your suggestion is the equivalent of abolishing the legal requirement to return the census form.
>>4508 >doing that would instantly make the data useless
The primary purpose of the register is to allow people to vote. It rightly should be useless for anything else.
>>4510 Mate, anyone with a legitimate need for that data already has access to the unedited register. Anyone that merely wants it to be able to make money can pay the market rate for it like any other commodity.
Election staff, political parties, candidates and holders of elected office use the register for electoral purposes.
Your local council and the British Library hold copies that anyone may look at under supervision. A copy is also held by the Electoral Commission, the Boundary Commissions (which set constituency boundaries for most elections) and the Office for National Statistics.
The council can use the register for duties relating to security, enforcing the law and preventing crime. The police and the security services can also use it for law enforcement.
The register is used when calling people for jury service.
Government departments may buy the register from local registration officers and use it to help prevent and detect crime. They can also use it to safeguard national security by checking the background of job applicants and employees.
Credit reference agencies can buy the register. They help other organisations to check the names and addresses of people applying for credit. They also use it to carry out identity checks when trying to prevent and detect money laundering.
It is a criminal offence for anyone to supply or use the register for anything else.
The only private entities with direct access to the unedited register are the credit reference agencies. They cannot resell that data in part or in whole, but can only use it for the purposes of credit referencing and anti money laundering checks. If I ask a CRA for the credit file of Joe Bloggs on Any Street, they can provide data from the unedited register. If I ask them for a list of everyone in Any Town, they can only provide me with data from the open register.
The current situation is actually an improvement in privacy; prior to 2001, the full unedited register was freely accessible, with no opt-out.
Speaking of the electoral register, my housing movements over the last six years have been so erratic and my memory so poor its fucking with my credit checks, etc. Is there any way if seeing my own data on the electoral roll?
You only ever have one set of details on the electoral roll (two if you're a student). It's the credit reference agencies that keep track of your previous addresses. You can request a copy of your credit file and they're obliged to correct any inaccurate data, but there's no way to "clean" your credit file if everything on it is correct.
Moving about a lot simply makes you a higher credit risk. There's no way to get around it other than to stay put and wait.
>>4514 I'm no expert, but I think after you move it will be the responsibility of the next residents to ensure your name is removed from the register there. If you want to check if you are registered at your current address, your local council should have an elections department who you can ring up and ask. They will probably appreciate the call, I don't know what they occupy themselves with when there isn't an election on.