PeelerSheila comments on Discussion Thread 🚀 Monday 20 July 2026

[–] PeelerSheila@aussie.zone 7 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

I got a message from a periodontal clinic subject to a recent data breach, urging me to not click any links that might be sent to me and to rest assured that my details are secure now (thankyou so much for shutting the gate after the horse has bolted!) The last time I had any connection with them at all was when I first got pregnant with Miniest, maybe 13 years ago‽ I haven't had any contact or use of their services since. Why had they kept my details for so long when I was no longer actually a customer of theirs? I feel like there should be a time limit for keeping information about people that aren't customers anymore, especially when places are bought out or merged into other businesses that you didn't originally consent to deal with.

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[–] tombruzzo@aussie.zone 4 points 3 months ago

Some places delete things, and you'd think being medically related they should have a data retention policy.

The two reasons are they're a 'never delete anything's type of place that wants to hold onto everthing 'just in case'. The most organised version of this is they can still use your data to build a profile of their future ideal customer, even if you're not opted in.

The other option, and maybe more likely since they had a breach, is they're so disorganised with their customer data they don't know what to do with it.

Especially given they're 'direct to consumer' instead of 'business to business', even in the medical field. That's why Ashley Maddison had that massive breach years ago. Even though they were a dating website specifically for affairs, they weren't obligated to have good security because they dealt with individual's data instead of other businesses

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