Why the Tories were emailing data to the Isle of Man?

Tankist Mon May 26, 2008 at 02:42:42 PM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook

Were they tried to evade EU data protection rules?



This has only just occurred to me, so apologies if it has been suggested elsewhere, but I was wondering why the Tories were sending anything to radio stations in the Isle of Man - no votes broadcasting.

And then it struck me - the Isle of Man is outside the EU and not subject, I imagine, to the EU's strict data protection legislation.

Anyone know anything more?



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Why the Tories were emailing data to the Isle of Man? | 6 comments (6 topical)

Tory data to Isle of Man - outside EEA (#1)

by rwendland on Mon May 26, 2008 at 03:44:48 PM GMT

The opposite of escaping Data Protection legislation in fact - it was the sending the data to the Isle of Man that infringed the Conservative Party's Data Protection Act registration - the Isle of Man is outside the European Economic Area declared in thier registration.

The Ministry of Truth blog has a couple of detailed items on this: here and here.

Strangely the Liberal Democrats have registered for the Worldwide transfer of canvassing returns ("sensitive personal data"). That seems quite unjustified, and if anyone took that up with the Information Commissioner the LibDems might get a telling off.


Re: Why the Tories were emailing data (#2)

by AngryVoter on Mon May 26, 2008 at 09:35:44 PM GMT

As far as anybody can tell it was a very simple cock up of a load of data freely available on the electoral roll. There's an investigation launched but from what I heard they were going to rule the same way the Tories own internal investigation ruled "Cock up". It's possible they accidentally had a predictive email body head like I do on my laptop, you type in a few words and it remembers and fills the rest in for you via a drop down list....

 What isn't explained is why they had that email address in the first place.


Re: Why the Tories were emailing data (#3)

by rwendland on Mon May 26, 2008 at 10:55:22 PM GMT

According to the press reports more than data freely available on the electoral roll:

  • financial status
  • voting intentions, and
  • phone numbers,
of 8,575 key voters, in three Excel file attachments. i.e. "sensitive personal data" for which you should have a security policy and proper protection measures. Not data that should be in the hands of laptop cowboys.


[ Parent ]

Re: Why the Tories were emailing data (#4)

by alexhilton on Tue May 27, 2008 at 08:54:47 AM GMT

Not to mention, the electoral register available to politicians includes all the people who have opted out of being on the public register. And don't forget, while most people opt-out in order to avoid getting some junk mail, victims of domestic violence also opt-out to make it harder to be traced by abusers.


[ Parent ]

Re: Why the Tories were emailing data (#5)

by RedRooster on Tue May 27, 2008 at 11:20:40 AM GMT

So, who here is confident that the way we manage data on Contact Creator is sufficiently robust that the same thing won't happen with us a few months later?


Financial status info (#6)

by rwendland on Tue May 27, 2008 at 08:22:23 PM GMT

If the press reports are right, the Tories were getting financial status info (probably credit scores) on key voters in C&N. Presumably to identify the best Tory voting prospects, or the most appealing message to hit particular voters with.

Do Labour & LibDem do any of that?


Why the Tories were emailing data to the Isle of Man? | 6 comments (6 topical)