Petition Companies House?

[WPF]

Hello fellow Company Directors!

On creating a company last year I was appalled to discover that my personal information was publicly available to anyone interested.

As I'm sure many of you did, I took due diligence and paid to register my business address elsewhere - so as to avoid a random, irate customer at my home premises. However when I run a Google search on my name I'm absolutely appalled to find that thanks to Companies House people can now know my date of birth and country of origin.

Personally, I think this is unnecessary and opens us up to identity fraud.

Over the last year of being in business I've talked to several other business owners who feel the same, and additionally wish that they didn't have to fork out to pay for a business address for the sole purpose of protecting their residential one.

I'm thinking it might be good to band together and start a petition which we could lodge with Companies House - any thoughts/support?

Thanks,
WPF

 

[PipeTen-Carl]

I don't agree on firstname surname and DOB, they are not private information/are a matter of public record, and are essential to reasonably distinguish one individual from another and the inter-association of directors and companies (phoenix scenarios for example).

I might agree on the personal address, as it can be easily hidden/obscured under current rules, though I do not fear a disgruntled customer turning up at my house so am publicly listed (companies house, electoral roll) even though I could put it through multiple business address or accountants office.

Don't you need a business/registered address anyway for distance selling regulations?

EDIT: Also, the money CH makes through charging for access to that data, in theory keeps the CH fees down / it'll never happen.

EDIT2: At least CH are open about it. Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Experian, VISA, GCHQ are the bigger fish to fry.

 

[justintime]

Just checked on Companies House and my home address is down under the Director tab. Does it bother me? Not in the slightest.

 

[ldjames]

I agree that it's annoying but depending on your level of annoyance you have a couple of options:
- Use your business address as your "personal address" (as far as I know this is ok)
- Use a nominee director service (costs more but gives you a lot more confidentiality)

 

[tony84]

I did not think Companies house made it publically available?
They sell it, there are companies they sell it to ho make it publically available?

 

[PipeTen-Carl]

- Use a nominee director service (costs more but gives you a lot more confidentiality)

Have you used such a scheme? They smell well dodgy (offshore directors to dodge liability for a shadow).

 

[PipeTen-Carl]

I did not think Companies house made it publically available?

They make it publicly available (for a small fee), not freely available.

 

[MikeJ]

Freely available using their "beta" service.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/

 

[WPF]

Pipe Ten-Carl - personally, think DOB should be kept private. It may be of use to distinguish one person from another, but whoever is looking for that information I believe should at least know the company name you're representing, not just be able to look up that information about you as an individual and leaves people massively open to identity fraud.

Yes, you need a business address for distance selling - but not everyone operates business that offer this.

No, you don't have to go through CH to get access to First, Surname and DOB. All you have to do is Google your name + companies house or your name + director and this information is plastered on multiple websites who scrap information from CH.

Not sure what you mean re CH by comparison to FB/MS/Google etc?

It's not that this is an 'annoyance' issue it's more that I think it makes people vulnerable to identity fraud.

 

[PipeTen-Carl]

Freely available using their "beta" service.

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/

Wow! Thanks. Can drop creditsafe if this will stay available!

 

[PipeTen-Carl]

Pipe Ten-Carl - personally, think DOB should be kept private. It may be of use to distinguish one person from another, but whoever is looking for that information I believe should at least know the company name you're representing, not just be able to look up that information about you as an individual and leaves people massively open to identity fraud.

You can find this information online http://www.freebmd.org.uk/progressB.shtml or http://www.rootsuk.com/ or pay for more detailed archive from commercial companies. Or get yourself to the local records place.

Not sure what you mean re CH by comparison to FB/MS/Google etc?

Wasn't really a direct / identity fraud comparison, just suggesting that Name and DOB on CH is such a minor concern compared with the information Tesco, VISA, GHCQ, telcos and the web giants collect, know and share with their partners about you, but yes off-topic.

It's not that this is an 'annoyance' issue it's more that I think it makes people vulnerable to identity fraud.

Name and DOB are useful, but not essential / most valuable, or it would be much worse than it otherwise is.

AFAIK it's been this way since 1837, just easier now.

 

[Formations Factory]

It's getting harder to maintain the privacy of your residential address with initiatives from Companies House like this one. One way to keep your home address private is to purchase registered office and service address services during your company formation. Many formation agents even offer 'Privacy' packages (e.g. Companies Made Simple / 1st Formations) that are designed for maximum privacy.

I agree that it's annoying but depending on your level of annoyance you have a couple of options:
- Use your business address as your "personal address" (as far as I know this is ok)
- Use a nominee director service (costs more but gives you a lot more confidentiality)

I would strongly advise against using any nominee services.

 

[Deleted member 59730]

[QUOTE="WPF, post: 2571358, member: 230929"
I'm thinking it might be good to band together and start a petition which we could lodge with Companies House - any thoughts/support?

WPF[/QUOTE]

And I will start a petition to make the information publically available.

I have had to take several businesses to court in the past few years and correctly identifying the guilty parties is very important.

The most important thing is not to sue the wrong party and cause distress to someone who has been mis-identified. DOB will often do that, especially if a son is taking over a family business from his father with the same name.

The best way to avoid angry customers turning up to your door is not to make them angry in the first place.

 

[WPF]

Atmosbob – thanks for stating the obvious regarding how one would avoid angry customers. I should have been more careful with my initial comment. It’s not really due to the notion of an angry customer at my door, it’s because I think it makes Directors vulnerable to identity fraud.


However, in saying that, as I’m sure you’re aware, unreasonable people do exist and take issue with something people did/didn’t do, that they thought you should’ve. It’s like saying that employees, say someone who works in a Call Centre, should make their information publicly accessible so they can be more readily identifiable within a large organisation; or that they deserve to have a disgruntled customer on their doorstep if they weren't able to achieve the customers desired outcome.

As mentioned in my initial post, I have take precautionary measures to protect myself by using the services offered by Companies Made Simple but I don’t think it’s reasonable that I have to. I think that information should only be available in certain, legal circumstances.


I’m sorry to hear of the issues you’ve faced with respect to correctly identifying someone but perhaps Companies House should bear more responsibility in that equation. And I’m not sure how common it would be to have multiple people with the same name all being Directors of a company – the father/son example you gave would account for a mere fraction, identity fraud however is a serious and growing enterprise for criminals.

 

[14Steve14]

On these forums people often say that everyone should carry out due diligence checks before using businesses. In doing those checks I can check a company easily and I can check a director of that company easily, but what if I want to check further into the directors history and see what they have been up to in the past. The DOB distinguishes one Fred Blogs from another. Addresses dont as people move.

If I want to take any legal action against a director, I need to make sure that the right person is named on any paperwork, the date of birth helps.

 

[WPF]

I understand what you're saying with respect to taking legal action and that DOB helps but there must be a better way. I'm from NZ originally, this information is not available to anyone in either NZ and I think Australia. From conversations I've had, it seems the UK lags behind other countries in this respect.

 

[WPF]

Regardless, it seems that Companies House have already identified this as a problem by listening to their 'constituents' and is already taking steps to move in what I believe is the right direction:

https://companieshouse.blog.gov.uk/...istening-to-our-customers-and-making-changes/

 

[Pish_Pash]

Off topic, I'm surprised that companies only issue one pin for their online system ...I found out that I'd have to hand the pin information over to my accountant (so that he could submit my accounts online)....but to me that's like giving someone the pin number of my ATM...what's to stop someone unscrupulous, changing all the directors, share ownership details while they are in there?!!!

i'd have thought there should be at least a two tier 'permissioing' system' should be in play...e.g. tier one pin for the Directors...allow any changes to any data ...tier 2 (accountants etc)...allow only submission of accounts.

Strikes me that Companies House aren't at the cutting edge of security/technology.