Shropshire Star comment: Maybe it’s time to end data sales
In the course of their activities, Shropshire’s councils inevitably collect a lot of information about you.
How would you feel if you discovered that they are flogging off that data?
Some people will inevitably feel uncomfortable about it, so the point needs to be made at the outset that Shropshire Council and Telford & Wrekin Council are not doing anything wrong. Quite the opposite – in providing electoral roll information to third parties, they are fulfilling their legal obligations.
And if they have to do it anyway, why not take the opportunity to rake in some money to their coffers in the process?
The amounts being made by selling information are paltry when compared with the council budgets. Over the past six years Telford & Wrekin made just over £12,000. Shropshire Council made £5,514 in the past three years.
The electoral roll is not a secret document and anybody who is willing to go to the trouble can ask to see it. If you’ve still got a library near you, you might find one there. The information in the open register is useful, in that you can find who lives where, but also limited, and also incomplete as people can ask to be exempted from the open register.
However the credit agency Equifax has also bought information from Shropshire Council from the full register, which is the crown jewels because it includes individuals who have opted out of having their details made public.
It turns out that various other credit agencies have also paid to sup at this information well, as well as share data management company Equiniti.
Over at Telford & Wrekin, apart from credit reference agencies, councillors and political parties are among those who have bought data. You can see how being able to tap into the electoral roll could be helpful politically and in planning electoral campaigns.
There does seem a contrast between the message that councils put out about looking after your personal information security, while on the other hand the councils are making money by compromising your personal information security, albeit entirely legally.
The question is whether councils should be involved in this and whether the time has come for this avenue to be closed.
