Is Your Data Safe with the City Council ?
Is information about you on the electoral register being sold to private companies? Green Councillors have been investigating the situation here in the Lancaster district. According to Council officers, the Council must supply a copy of the edited register to any person who pays the fee. Whilst the Council does not specifically advertise this, if requested, it must, by law, supply the information. Under these regulations, Lancaster City Council sold parts of the edited register to three companies over the last financial year.
Cllr Jude Towers said: “Green Councillors do not agree that residents should have to opt out of the edited register in order to ensure their details are not sold to private companies for commercial gain. The Government is currently reviewing this provision and we are writing to the relevant minister to argue that residents’ data must be protected from commercial exploitation without the need to specifically opt out of the edited register.”
Currently residents are advised that the information may be sold on their annual canvass forms, delivered in August every year, and can then choose to ‘opt out’, excluding their details from the register which is made available for sale to the commercial organisations. Additionally, the Council’s website carries a statement about this issue. Approximately a third of people on the electoral register in the District have ‘opted out’, so their information does not appear on the edited register which can be bought by commercial organisations. This year’s canvass forms are in the process of being distributed, giving residents this ‘opt out’ option.