Labour Caught in New Data Scandal?

Luci Penn, Managing Director of REaD UK

So, the direct mail industry is making headline news again and this time the incumbent Government is responsible with their recent mail shot claiming NHS cancer treatments will be threatened under the Conservatives.

The mail shot, which was sent to 250,000 women, targeted individuals living in areas with higher incidences of cancer. However, concerns have been raised about how Labour were able to target the recipients so effectively fuelling fears that confidential data may have been used.

Labour maintains the data used was based on socio-demographic data but examples have been given where only one individual within a neighbourhood or similar group received the mailing – in these examples the individuals in question were present or past breast cancer patients.

Some argue it was inevitable that cancer sufferers received the mailing based on the law of averages particularly as the data was aimed at the group using anonymous demographic hospital statistics however; others say it is just too coincidental based on the only-one-in-neighbourhood occurrences.

If Government have used confidential information in this way it would indicate a complete lack of regard for the Data Protection Act, which far exceeds the magnitude of their historic data blunders such as the HMRC data loss.

Whatever the data source, you’d think that someone within Government would have given some thought to the potential risks of mailing “theoretical” cancer patients. Ultimately, telling a terminally ill cancer patient that their treatment could be at risk if the Conservatives win the election is insensitive to the extreme. It’s the kind of behaviour that fuels the fears people have of the widespread availability of their data and with the direct mailing industry, which makes it harder to highlight examples of best practice within the industry and the contribution we make to GDP.

With Labour planning to send 4.5m cards in the run up to the election to targeted groups such as pensioners and owners of small businesses, lets hope we don’t see any more irresponsible headlines.