Tories lose private data on 8,500 C&N voters

Jag Singh Wed May 21, 2008 at 09:14:27 PM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook

It's just been reported that the Conservatives in Crewe & Nantwich sent data to several media outlets which contained private and confidential data on voters within the constituency. The voting intentions, MOSAIC (socio-economic profiles), names, addresses and telephone numbers of more than 8000 voters contained in three Excel spreadsheets was sent to Manx Radio.

This looks to be a major breach of data protection laws. The Tories have admitted to this, but many questions still remain unanswered. We still do not know which part of the constituency the data related to, nor do we know if it was intentionally released.

It is still unclear if David Cameron will be making an apology to the people of Crewe & Nantwich.

The The BBC learned that the files were e-mailed around lunchtime on Wednesday (today). The Information Commissioner has launched an investigation, saying that the mishandling of data by the Tories was an issue that raised "serious concern."






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Tories lose private data on 8,500 C&N voters | 20 comments (20 topical)

TORIES DISCLOSED CONFIDENTIAL DATA (#1)

by AngryVoter on Wed May 21, 2008 at 10:03:10 PM GMT

Seems like a simple accident to me. I mean, why would you send the data on purpose to an Isle of Mann Radio Station?

 

Is Portillo hiding out there ready to snatch the data and consume it for his own dark ends on This Week?

 

I mean, I hate to seem childish, but it's not as bad as other confidential data that has gone astray in the last couple of years... 

 


Infact.... (#2)

by AngryVoter on Wed May 21, 2008 at 10:41:46 PM GMT

Just to add to this. The BBC spent 3 minutes on that item, and several on the candidates and general opinion.


[ Parent ]

Re: TORIES DISCLOSED CONFIDENTIAL DATA (#4)

by victory1945 on Wed May 21, 2008 at 11:00:15 PM GMT

No, this is bad.

The secret ballot (or Australian ballot) is the cornerstone of our democracy. This is worse than a binary string of data within some computer hard-drive that can theoretically be translated into bank account numbers.

And yes, I think this is as good a time as any other to score a political point. There's an election tomorrow, after all.

From what I'm hearing, the data was sent to a journalist - it's not like someone accidentally sent this in to the on-air DJ whilst requesting an Arctic Monkeys song.



[ Parent ]

Re: TORIES DISCLOSED CONFIDENTIAL DATA (#5)

by AngryVoter on Wed May 21, 2008 at 11:08:55 PM GMT

A journo for Manx Radio. On the Isle of Man.

Here's their website: http://www.manxradio.com/

 

Not exactly the beeb, is it? 


[ Parent ]

Re: TORIES DISCLOSED CONFIDENTIAL DATA (#10)

by CitizenAndreas on Thu May 22, 2008 at 10:54:38 AM GMT

Voting intentions would have been obtained through canvassing and people are under no obligation to reveal their voting intentions to canvassers. This is data that people have willingly given not actual confidential voting data.


[ Parent ]

Re: TORIES DISCLOSED CONFIDENTIAL DATA (#9)

by CitizenAndreas on Thu May 22, 2008 at 10:50:29 AM GMT

It certainly could be dismissed as just an accident, I've long thought that a lot of the media coverage of data loss has been pretty poorly informed and over hysterical.

The only problem with this is that the Tories have long been fanning the media flames on this subject, and placing the blame quite squarely at Labours door.


[ Parent ]

Re: TORIES MISTAKENLY DISCLOSE CONFIDENTIAL (#3)

by RedRooster on Wed May 21, 2008 at 10:51:01 PM GMT

Let's all imagine how this would be covered if this was the Labour party.


C & N data (#6)

by Old Tom on Wed May 21, 2008 at 11:43:08 PM GMT

Christian Socialists might remember St. Augustine: But for the Grace of God, there go I!


Planning to send the data abroad anyway? (#7)

by LabourMatters on Thu May 22, 2008 at 12:37:38 AM GMT

The Ministry of Truth blog says that the data was possibly being sent to an offshore call center. If true, then this error may well uncover a patern of Tories sending private data abroad.


Re: Tories lose private data (#8)

by meshuganater on Thu May 22, 2008 at 08:59:51 AM GMT

"Just a simple accident", my arse. We were absolutely lampooned by the press and the Tories forlosing thechild benefit data becuase a junior civil servant made an error. They should be held accountable and we should make an issue about it, it's not a trivial matter- undermining our democracy. We would have been torn to shreds but because its the Tories, it's fine? No, that doesn't wash with me.


Re: Tories lose private data (#13)

by Floating voter on Thu May 22, 2008 at 12:35:46 PM GMT

"We were absolutely lampooned by the press and the Tories forlosing thechild benefit data becuase a junior civil servant made an error"

Ignoring the difference in scale (8000 vs 25m) there are other significant differences AIUI.

  • The data was publicly available from the electoral register
  • They didn't "lose" it in the sense of the "lost CDs". They know exactly where it went
  • They have, apparently, obtained undertakings that the erroneous emails have been deleted.

So I don't think you're comparing like with like.

 

"They should be held accountable" 

Agreed

 

"and we should make an issue about it" 

Only if you want to look silly. The "labour" incidents involve data that is completely lost and unaccounted for. The "tory" incident has (according to the press) been contained and cleaned up. 

 


[ Parent ]

Re: Tories lose private data (#16)

by meshuganater on Thu May 22, 2008 at 01:24:36 PM GMT

But, this is a matter of bloody principle. They should not be allowed to flout rules and get away with unmitigated irresponsibility in this manner. An absolute disgrace.


[ Parent ]

Re: Tories lose private data (#17)

by Floating voter on Thu May 22, 2008 at 03:12:34 PM GMT

"They should not be allowed to flout rules and get away with unmitigated irresponsibility in this manner."

But they haven't got away with it. They're under investigation and we shouldn't prejudge the outcome. 


[ Parent ]

Re: Tories lose private data (#11)

by Al on Thu May 22, 2008 at 12:18:44 PM GMT

It's come too late to make a difference to the by-election, and possibly just at the right time for it to be 'buried' among the inevitable post election analysis.

However, while I wouldn't say it's as bad as the governments losses, I'm sure I'm not the only person thinking that what goes around comes around.

The Tories blaming this on a singular 'human error', is pretty much identical to the governments reponse to their data error, which led to an absolute roasting in the press.

Again, the governments losses were worse, this is just names addresses, telephone numbers and voting intentions, but the story behind it, about trust with data, shows that perhaps the Tories wouldn't be any better than the government with this thing.

To my mind it raises the wider question about data security in an online world, but frankly I have a feeling neither party would approach the issue calmly and senisibly for debate when there is political point scoring to be had.


Re: Tories lose private data (#12)

by Shawcross on Thu May 22, 2008 at 12:20:58 PM GMT


 Well, 8500 is bad (and embarrassing in its timing) , but of an entirely different order of magnitude from the  25 million the Government lost last year.


Re: Tories lose private data (#14)

by rwendland on Thu May 22, 2008 at 12:51:21 PM GMT

It is less data but in two important ways the voting intentions loss is more significant:

  • The data actually got into an outsider's hands, wheras the HMRC CDs we must presume are simply lost somewhere within HMRC or its contractors.
  • "political opinion" is higher grade data under the Data Protection Act: "sensitive personal data" (along with medical, ethnic, religous data). So organisations that handle such data are legally obliged to be more careful with it.
This is as much a warning to all party workers handling such data. I suspect the outcome of the Information Commissioner's inquiry into this fiasco will be more stringent rules for all constituency parties in the way they handle such data.


[ Parent ]

Re: Tories lose private data (#15)

by Floating voter on Thu May 22, 2008 at 12:54:37 PM GMT

"we must presume are simply lost somewhere within HMRC or its contractors"

There is no justification to "presume" this. Nobody knows where the data is. It could be in HMRC or it could be in the hands of a "phishing gang" .

 

"I suspect the outcome of the Information Commissioner's inquiry into this fiasco will be more stringent rules for all constituency parties in the way they handle such data." 

No bad thing IMO 


[ Parent ]

Re: Tories lose some silly list (#18)

by John Pickworth on Thu May 22, 2008 at 04:30:03 PM GMT

Is this it?

One of the most important by-elections for a generation (for both reds and blues) and the BIG STORY is about an email that accidentally included the wrong attachments?

Seriously guys, its a bit of a blunder to be sure but its not exactly as if they've just emailed everyone's PIN numbers to Nigeria.

Can we get back to some real politics now please?



Re: Tories lose some silly list (#19)

by rwendland on Thu May 22, 2008 at 04:42:35 PM GMT

On politics, I thought the thread giving Brendan Barber's talk on "Reconfiguring the DNA of New Labour for a different age" was rather good and timely at showing a way forward. And to give such a talk to Progress - is the wind changing direction even over there?


[ Parent ]

Let's remind voters of HRMC! (#20)

by Group51 on Fri May 23, 2008 at 07:34:52 AM GMT

This was irrelevant to the campaign, and the way this cock-up was used (leaflet saying that Tories had sent voters "financial" data off-shore) says a lot about why we lost heavily.


Tories lose private data on 8,500 C&N voters | 20 comments (20 topical)