Emma's Diary Data Used to Get Mums in Labour

In the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has fined parenting advice web site Emma's Diary £140k for illegally collecting and selling personal information belonging to more than one million people for political campaigning purposes by the Labour Party.

Emma's Diary sold the information to Experian Marketing Services specifically for use by the Labour Party. Experian then created a database which the party used to profile the new mums in the run up to the 2017 General Election, and the Labour Party was able to send targeted direct mail to mums living in areas with marginal seats, about its intention to protect Sure Start Children's centres.

The ICO investigation found that Emma's Diary's privacy policy did not disclose that the personal information given would be used for political marketing or by political parties, which is a breach of the Data Protection Act 1998. Lifecycle Marketing, which owns Emma's Diary, apologised saying it had never previously provided data to a political party and would never do so again. Elizabeth Denham, Information Commissioner, commented: 'The relationship between data brokers, political parties and campaigns is complex. Even though this company was not directly involved in political campaigning, the democratic process must be transparent'.

The ICO has put the UK's eleven main political parties on notice to have their data-sharing practices audited later this year, and also has outstanding enquiries with a number of data brokers, including Experian.

Web site: www.ico.org.uk .