Emma's Diary fined £140k for flogging data on over a million new mums to Labour Party Data-brokering biz Lifecycle Marketing (Mother & Baby) has been fined £140,000 by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for illegally collating and flogging personal information of more than a million people. The Buckinghamshire-based business, also known as Emma's Diary, issues advice on pregnancy and childcare. It sold …
And there talk of a new one to take the center ground.
You know where the Liberals should be, although as Vince Cable is reputed to be one of the architects you wonder if its just a merger and rejig of the the Liberals (and the SDP before that!) with a few others.
There is also talk of Bliarites in the Labour party splitting off to form a left leaning centrist party if they can't get rid of Corbyn. Labour splitting would pretty much remove them as contenders at the next election I think.
Pity there are no other real alternatives to vote for. The right is crap, the left is crap and the centre is full of ' Don't Kows' .
What the UK needs is a charismatic character who could drain the swamp and make Britain great again.........no...wait !
Sadly in many Labour held constituencies, they could put up a blind pig as candidate and it would still get elected with more than 50% of the vote. B.Liar only got in (according to my pa who was labour through and through) because he had the Trade Union Vote behind him.
Corbyn is a different beast with his 'Momentum' activists working to oust any sitting MP that won't to his hard line.
Mind you the Tory party is just as split so the next election (May 2019 is my bet) will be interesting.
>>Sadly in many Labour held constituencies, they could put up a blind pig as candidate and it would still get elected with more than 50% of the vote.<<
Not Just Labour, 126 (20%) MPs have been in place since before 2001. Many seats haven't changed 'owner' in decades, only 50 or so seats changed party (any direction) in 2017 and that nearly resulted in a change of government.
In England:
Tories, Labour, Lib Dems, Co-operative Party (they have 37 MPs in Westminster who sit with Labour)
In Scotland:
Add SNP to the above
In Wales
Add Plaid Cymru to the above
In Northern Ireland
DUP, Ulster Unionist, SDLP, Sinn Féin
That's 10 parties.
You could maybe add UKIP, Greens and Alliance
I believe some of the big English parties have separate registrations in Scotland and Wales.
So I guess you can find 11 main parties.
@katrinab >>So I guess you can find 11 main parties.<<
11 - UKIP
No MPs but they do have 18 MEPs out of the UKs 73, (Con 18, Lab 20)
As of March 30 2019 there will indeed be only 10 major parties and 73 ex MEPs looking for a new way to represent us. (or a new trough if you prefer).
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Presumably, if the Labour party requested Experian to gather this data, and Experian gathered this from Emma's diary, then both parties should have used "due dilligence" to ascertain the data had been obtained legitimately? Have experian and labour been investigated and fined too for unlawful use of this data?
"Have experian and labour been investigated and fined too for unlawful use of this data?"
Unfortunately under the terms of the DPA, ICO simply doesn't have the power to do that. Under GDPR it does. Had these offences occurred in the last 3 months the penalties could be much larger and much more broad. It didn't so they aren't.
I'm fed up with these 'new mum' companies that are just there to collect information, because they're just preying on exhausted vulnerable new mums who's last thought it to worry about data privicy - and they shouldn't have to. £140k is not enough for the breach of human decency.
Though to be fair there's another similar company who are even worse - they've somehow managed to get their reps installed in hospitals who then patrol the maternity wards looking for exhausted mothers who'll hand over all kinds of data because they're (rightly) thinking about their baby and not about some fcukweasel data brokers.
/rant over
Though to be fair there's another similar company who are even worse - they've somehow managed to get their reps installed in hospitals who then patrol the maternity wards looking for exhausted mothers who'll hand over all kinds of data because they're (rightly) thinking about their baby and not about some fcukweasel data brokers.
I think about 10 years of community service washing used nappies by hand is appropriate for that kind of S@~%
So the fine for misusing my personal details is 14p?
Not necessarily. If a company receives £X for your personal details and has to pay the ICO £Y as a penalty, then if £Y > £X it is a fine; but if £X > £Y then it is just a business expense.
It is slightly more complicated than that, since being fined isn't very tax efficient - they can't offset it against tax, but I'm sure a company can factor that into their pricing and they will be minimising their tax bill anyway. e.g. if the ICO can only fine £0.5M (not sure if that is true going forward with GDPR) then they are probably OK if they never sell anything for < £1M. i.e. to be profitable their misuse, in this scenario, should always be substantial.
I can't figure out why anyone paid Experian for this information. After all, Experian GAVE AWAY my personal information (along with that of millions of others) because they didn't have enough sense to patch a known vulnerability.
In the US, our alleged public guardians immediately swung into action, giving Experian a resounding "Now, now, don't do it again until next time!" No fine or other penalties, of course.
To pinch a Lee Hazlewood song title "It's an actuality" that some of these new mums are under the age of 18, certainly prevalent around here, is there any special consideration given to Experian collecting their data from what are, effectively in modern terminology, still "children" themselves?
Any near-sighted pig nominated for the house of commons would be nervously looking around his/her shoulder constantly for the fat figure of The Demon Butler grinning happily behind.
Still, I expect Dave to be in the house of lords within a few years, nominated in gratitude by the new prime minister, the Tyrant Trump of Demonland's Vicar in Britannia Magna: Lord Protector Nigel Farage.
Don't hold your breath.
In terms of ex-PM honours John Major was the last in 2005 (8 years after leaving No 10). Tony Blair is pending (left No 10 eleven years ago in 2007), as are Gordon Brown and David Cameron (left No 10 in 2010 and 2016 respectively). Until they figure out a way to make a PM gong for Blair palatable to all the people who didn't like him "Call me Dave" could be waiting a long time!
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