Discovery Life clients exposed
HIGH COURT: APPLICATION AGAINST AN EX-EMPLOYEE
About 1 000 names, ID numbers and e-contact details published in papers are now being sealed.
About 1 000 names, ID numbers and e-contact details published in papers now being sealed.
Discovery Life has disclosed personal information of about roughly 1 000 clients in documents it lodged as part of a high court application against a former broker.
Broker Devan de Meyer resigned to join MedBond.
Concerned that he’d contact clients to lure them away, Discovery Life filed an urgent application in the High Court in Johannesburg on September 10 to prohibit De Meyer from “contacting, enticing or soliciting away” any clients named in five annexures. The annexures list the clients’ names, identity numbers and e-contact details, and effectively put the information in the public domain.
The court refused to entertain Discovery Life’s application.
Court documents show De Meyer resigned under the apparent impression that the client book he previously serviced would be transferred to him at MedBond, as was ostensibly the case with some other brokers.
Discovery denies that De Meyer had any basis to assume he was entitled to do so.
Discovery asked the court to protect it from “unlawful interference” by De Meyer, drawing attention to his employment contract, which requires him to return all its assets upon resignation, which it says De Meyer ignored.
In his answering affidavit, De Meyer denies ever giving Discovery cause to believe he intended to breach his employment contract’s terms. It’s unclear why Discovery deemed it necessary to divulge these clients’ personal details in such detail.
Responding to questions, Discovery denied wrongdoing.
It told Moneyweb it detected that De Meyer unlawfully took confidential client details without its consent, shared them with an unauthorised third party, and has refused to return the information despite various requests.
“For this reason alone, we initiated urgent legal proceedings to protect the information he had stolen. Discovery applied to the High Court in Johannesburg to interdict Mr Meyer [sic] from using any of this information and to ensure its return. Discovery is taking all reasonable and necessary steps to have this information returned and to prevent its misuse in respect of the employment contract with Mr Meyer, which is designed specifically for the protection of our clients.
De Meyer disputes this in court documents.
Discovery contends the Protection of Personal Information Act caters specifically for circumstances like this and provides an exemption for disclosure to the court to demonstrate breach.
It says its submission contained no medical details, policy information or investment details which it believes the advisor has. Discovery’s actions in this instance were “solely” to protect client information.
As an additional precaution Discovery has asked the judge to seal the court papers, which it is in the process of doing.
The insurer says it has phoned all affected clients.
Discovery says it goes to significant lengths to ensure any information, from clients or third parties, is stored in a secure manner and constantly protected from unauthorised access.
Attorney Trudie Broekmann says clients whose information was disclosed can complain to the Information Regulator, the Ombudsman for Long-term Insurance or the FAIS Ombud.