DVLA Selling Your Address

So much for the Data Protection Act

By PH Staff / Tuesday, 13 June 2006 / Loading comments

Last weekend The Sunday Times ran a story detailing how supermarkets are using security firms to chase up shoppers who park in their car parks for more than the permitted 2 hours.

Rather than slap a ticket on the car in the vain hope that it might get paid, the Sunday Times reported that many of the big supermarkets hand over the registration numbers of cars to 'security firms' who then pay the DVLA for the name and address of the owner of each vehicle. Motorists are then sent demands for anything up to £150.

The information on the DVLA's computers - you'd be forgiven for thinking was protected via the Data Protection Act - is sold off at £2.50 a pop.

The Data Protection Act has been the subject of criticism previously, usually because it prevents organisations such as different police forces from sharing vital data.

In this case though, the spurious reasons for releasing personal data about motorists is tenuous at best and potentially very dangerous as the regulations regarding 'security firms' are nowhere as strict as those imposed on police officers attempting to use the PNC for the same purposes.

We're now in a position where someone can spot your number plate in the street or online and all too easily obtain your home address under false pretences.

It's time to act...