QLD Possible Privacy Breach by Debt Collectors?

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qldquery

Member
3 February 2016
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What are the limitations that exist for 'debt collectors' or a finance company that has been assigned the rights under an Agreement, to contact a business associate to enquire about contact details for a debtor? The creditor (finance company) has our contact details as I've spoken to them once on the telephone and received a letter from them, so they had no need to make contact with the business associate.

Contacting the business associate may have damaged our reputation. Do we have grounds to complain about our privacy being breached or other options?
 

Tim W

Lawyer
LawConnect (LawTap) Verified
28 April 2014
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Sydney
No, you probably don't.

And unless you have suffered some sort of damage to your reputation
that involves measurable loss (and is more than mere embarrassment on your part),
you may not have enough to found an action in defamation.

As a general thing, a "business associate" (or, as more often happens, an employer)
who is not involved in the debt (or dispute or whatever) doesn't have any kind of obligation
to supply any kind of information to a debt collector about someone else.