Stopping CRA's from selling our personal data unfairly

[Dipply75]

any comments on this train of thought welcome as this issue has bugged me for some time and this may be a way of dealing with it:

 

The Information Commissioner put out a leaflet about our details on the electoral register being sold for marketing etc for a fee and how this was unfair as we pretty much don't have a choice to be on the register - it listed a high court ruling, The Robertson Case, in support of this.

 

From this ruling we are now allowed to 'opt out' of the direct marketing side of the electoral register so why can't we use the same logic with the CRA's and stop a major source of their revenue?

 

We don't have much of a choice about being in their files, but can we follow the electoral register lead and 'opt out' of letting them package up our info and sell it too?

The ICO leaflet reads:

 

The ‘Robertson Case’ A ruling by the High Court in November 2001 (following a case brought by a member of the public, Mr Robertson) changed the law governing the use of personal information on the electoral register. The High Court ruling confirmed that it was unlawful to sell copies of the electoral register to private businesses without giving people a choice not to have their information used in this way. The Commissioner’s view The Commissioner believed that because individuals are required by law to supply personal information for the electoral register, and they commit a criminal offence if they do not, any non-electoral uses of the information should be kept to a minimum. The previous arrangements allowed the sale of the entire register to anyone prepared to pay a fee, and the Commissioner thought this was inconsistent with the Data Protection Act 1998, particularly the requirement to treat people’s information fairly.

 

The High Court ruled that, by not allowing people to opt out of being included in the register that was for sale, the previous arrangements were in breach of UK human rights legislation.

 

Will be looking up this Robertson Case but any comments? - good or bad