A TOP Donegal hotel has been warned it will be prosecuted if it breaches data protection laws again after admitting staff kept mobile phone numbers of guests for direct marketing purposes.
Gallaghers Hotel in Letterkenny admitted breaches of ethics when investigated by the Office of the Data Protection Commission.
It followed complaints from guests who stayed there that they began receiving text messages offering deals there after they had checked out.
The hotel had not obtained valid consent to send marketing communications to any of the numbers.
“We informed Gallaghers that it had not obtained valid consent and it must now delete all numbers obtained in this way for marketing purposes,” says a report from the OFPC.
“It readily agreed to delete its entire database and start obtaining valid consent for marketing purposes from now on. It has now attached a tick box to its registration cards in order to obtain such valid consent.”
A warning has now been issued to Gallaghers Hotel that if any further complaints concerning their electronic marketing operations it is likely that the Commissioner will prosecute it if he is satisfied that it has committed offences.
The complaint follows a massive increase in text marketing in Donegal in recent months from various establishments.
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