Region’s authorities make £32,000 from sale of voters’ data

COUNCILS IN East Yorkshire have made more than £32,000 selling residents’ personal information in the past six years.

A Freedom of Information request has revealed that Hull and East Riding councils sold data to credit reference agencies, insurance companies and private individuals from the electoral register.

The law states that any person or organisation can purchase data from an extract of the electoral register – known as the “open register” – while some companies can access more in-depth information from the “full register”.

In the past six years, Hull Council made £16,689 and East Riding Council collected £16,153 from selling the names and addresses of registered voters in their authority areas.

However, critics warn that unscrupulous firms could be abusing the system for marketing and publicity purposes.

Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo, said: “No public authority should sell residents’ personal information to private entities for profit. This sale of data leaves us open to targeted advertising and undermines trust in councils.”

Credit reference agencies such as Experian, Crediva, Equifax and CallCredit appear most frequently on the list of companies buying data. In Hull local political parties spent more than £1,400 on the data – with the Conservatives spending the most (£473) followed by Labour (£409). CallCredit, now TransUnion, said data aggregated from councils nationally could be used by clients like banks to help combat identity fraud. Of the 187,500 people registered to vote, 51 per cent had opted out of the open register, Hull Council said.

East Riding Council said residents should be aware that some organisations, like Experian, had the right to information on the full version – regardless of whether a resident opted in or out.

The full register “is only used for elections, preventing and detecting crime, checking applications for loans and credit and jury summoning”.