Spotlight on junk mail, telemarketing pests
Greece’s central bank governor and the head of the country’s privacy watchdog yesterday separately criticized banks and other companies resorting to aggressive telephone or junk mail advertising campaigns. In a meeting with the Hellenic Bank Association, Bank of Greece Governor Nikos Garganas urged commercial banks to tone down their aggressive marketing, and to increase transparency regarding their transactions with customers. Garganas, who complained that he himself had been offered a 3,000-euro bank loan through the post, proposed legislative action to curb bank excesses. Meanwhile, the head of Greece’s Authority for the Protection of Personal Data, Dimitris Gourgourakis, told a Parliamentary committee on transparency that people who want to avoid intrusive advertisers should notify the authority, which will add them to its list of protected names.
