[URL]http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/12/ucas-sells-marketing-access-student-data-advertisers[/URL]
[quote]
Access to the data of more than a million teenagers and [URL="http://www.theguardian.com/education/students"]students[/URL] and thousands of their parents is being sold to advertisers such as mobile phone and energy drinks companies by Ucas, the university applications body.
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service received more than £12m last year in return for targeted [URL="http://www.theguardian.com/media/advertising"]advertising[/URL] and sales of the emails and addresses of subscribers as young as 16.
The service, which controls admissions to UK universities and attracts 700,000 new applicants each year, sells the access via its commercial arm, Ucas Media.
[URL="http://www.theguardian.com/business/vodafonegroup"]Vodafone[/URL], [URL="http://www.theguardian.com/business/o2"]O2[/URL], [URL="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/microsoft"]Microsoft[/URL] and the private university accommodation provider Pure Student Living are among those who have marketed through Ucas, which offers access to over a million student email addresses and a market worth a claimed £15bn a year.
The Red Bull energy drink firm promoted three new drink flavours by sending sample cans to 17,500 selected students deemed to be trend-setting "early adopters" in order to create a "social media buzz".[/quote]
Megacorps, man...
That's privatization for you.
Gee thanks UCAS, I appreciate my details being sold left right and centre.
Oh who am I kidding, your details get sent everywhere regardless of where you put them.
UCAS also store passwords in plain text. If you need your password retrieving, they will send you your raw password in an email. You also can't change your password to something else you've used, so they also store previous passwords too. The UCAS system worries me.
[QUOTE=Silentfood;44218906]UCAS also store passwords in plain text. If you need your password retrieving, they will send you your raw password in an email. You also can't change your password to something else you've used, so they also store previous passwords too. The UCAS system worries me.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, best part is that if someone gets in your account they can quite literally ruin your future.
Can I sue?
[QUOTE=zin908;44219182]Can I sue?[/QUOTE]
Use the money to repay your debts!
[QUOTE=zin908;44219182]Can I sue?[/QUOTE]
Probably. But don't expect it to get anywhere.
Oh hey, I thought everyone got sent red bull. I guess I'm a 'trend-setting "early adopter"' :v:
UCAS is pretty annoying, they've been sending me emails about Accommodation in Edinburgh that costs £150 a week, apparently that is ideal for students. I'm only going to be paying £75 a week for my 2nd year flat next year so I don't know who rents that other shit.
UCAS manage to be amazingly shit on all counts (not checked it this year, but their website last year, jesus christ) yet it's basically the only way to get into uni so you've got to fucking deal with it. It's a totally shit organisation and sends irritating volumes of emails - hey, just moved in to accomodation? Time to barrage you with totally irrelevant accomodation emails ignoring the fact the uni year started a week ago! Student union elections coming up? Let's send them thousands of totally irrelevant shit emails from ourselves in addition to the metric shittonne they are getting in uni! Oh, and that microsoft office product placement too! Who cares that the uni we recorded you as going into gives you free office, let's advertise it more! Don't forget the NUS card!
Then you've got the fact that you apply through UCAS and most unis have selection exams and such (for competitive courses), and in the end much of the stuff you fill in for UCAS is ignored by the uni and you have to send the unis individual forms and the like. I won't even go in to what you have to do when your are getting a bursary from a separate organisation in combination with Student Finance and the course requires vaccinations, an enhanced DBS certificate and such. Man that was a paperwork nightmare.
I remember dealing with UCAS at college being a complete ball ache.
They keep spamming me with their shitty newsletters too, despite unsubscribing to the mailing list.
this really reassures me considering I'm applying for uni in a couple of months
Uh, correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this violating the data protection act. Unless there's a tickbox for opting out but that doesn't really sound like the case.
[QUOTE=Adzter;44226558]Uh, correct me if I'm wrong but isn't this violating the data protection act. Unless there's a tickbox for opting out but that doesn't really sound like the case.[/QUOTE]
There is a tickbox to opt out.
[t]http://puu.sh/7uaC3.png[/t]
UCAS are absolute unmitigated cunts.
Aside from being generally incompetent (there was a case recently where an error on the webpage where pressing "accept as firm" automatically notified that university that you'd rejected their offer :v: ) and the fact that their servers go down without fail every year on results day, they take every possible opportunity to swindle and penny pinch.
So when you apply to university, you fill in your predicted grades and write your personal statement, things like that, and then your school writes you a reference, which is hopefully a glowing recommendation of what a model student you are, and is a major deciding factor in whether universities will offer you a place.
It's in your best interests to read it, because it will give you an idea of things interviewers might pick up on about your application. So you go onto UCAS, click view reference, to view data pertaining to [B]you[/B] that [B]your school[/B] has written, and they want to charge you £10 for the privilege.
The DPA fully allows them to charge an "administration fee", but for you to have to pay a tenner for 3 lines of PHP that pulls a piece of text up from their database is more than a tiny bit cheeky.
If you ask your school nicely they'll let you read what they said, but basically UCAS are more interested in lining their pockets than actually doing their job. Yay privatisation.
[QUOTE=EvilPengy;44224627]I remember dealing with UCAS at college being a complete ball ache.
They keep spamming me with their shitty newsletters too, despite unsubscribing to the mailing list.[/QUOTE]
I'm quite sure that ignoring the unsubscribe thing means they can be fined in the USA
Its my data, I demand a cut.
:v:
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