03/11/2017
ICO targets ‘personal information’ traders (UK)
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has extended its campaign against nuisance calls from the firms which make the calls to the data broking industry as a whole and – appropriately – its first success is an £80,000 fine levied on the firm which markets itself as the “UK’s premier lead-generation provider”.
Verso Group (UK) Limited was fined for breaching data protection law by failing to make it clear to people what it was doing with their personal information.
‘Verso Group (UK) Limited: Monetary Penalty Notice’ explains how the ICO discovered Verso had supplied personal data to two firms against which it took successful action for making nuisance calls: Prodial Limited, which received a record fine of £350,000 in 2016 for making 46 million nuisance calls, and EMC Advisory Services Ltd, which was fined £70,000 in 2014 for making unsolicited calls.
Verso generated leads by contacting people in the UK from two overseas call centres and gathering personal data from what the telephone operators incorrectly termed ‘surveys’. Other practices included buying data from various firms, then packaging it up to be sold on for use in direct marketing without the required consents.
ICO’s investigation into the data broking sector embraces a wide range of organisations, including credit reference agencies (CRAs), which gather high volumes of personal data. It has contacted CRAs about the products they offer and the transparency of their personal data processing.
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