Forum Topic

What info Councils hold on you and sell to others

There are rumours that several local authorities have been passing personal information they hold on council tax payers and residents to third parties. Hounslow have been passing details of single council tax payers to a third party as well as details of Council tenants. Some have recieved rather nasty letters over their right to single persons discount. A right not a benefit as is being implied.This also includes details of residents who have CPZ permits and their vehicle details.Companies like Serco are recipients and details are being passed on to firms like Experian who then control an individuals credit rating and one has to pay for the access to their own information.These companies are far from reputable and Banks and other organisations have placed far too much responsibility with them.Most of us are unaware of such trading in our personal information.Does anyone know if Ealing , Hammersmith Brent or Hounslow are doing this?

Anthony Waller ● 4435d5 Comments

Thanks for the compliment old man Nigel - yes, I feel younger now that the sun is with us - i feel positively sprightly this morning. And thanks for the advice.

Gerry Tan ● 4434d

Morning young Gerry.You can dramatically cut down the amount of junk mail that you receive (both addressed and untargeted) by registering with the Mailing Preference Service.http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/

Nigel Brooks ● 4435d

I don't know if its Councils and Local Authority offices who give away one's details, but increasingly we're plagued with letters from organisations wanting to sell their products or services and we wonder where they obtained our names and addresses - a real nuisance.

Gerry Tan ● 4435d

'There are rumours that several local authorities have been passing personal information they hold on council tax payers and residents to third parties. 'Either they do or they don't. A Freedom of Information request would tell you what the truth of the matter is.

Andy Jones ● 4435d

ProbablyIIRC Hounslow had a high proportion of Council Tax Benefit claimants and used an outside credit referencing service to reduce this number. If that means concatenating data about income, high credit card expenditure and the like then sobeit.There is so much information freely available on all of us, I don't actually see this as news anymore. Anyone who thinks that their personal information is personal anymore is being naïve in the extreme.

Nigel Brooks ● 4435d