INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightLifecycle MarketingImage caption
Many families sign up to Emma's Diary because of the free products and
discount coupons it offers
A company that offers pregnant women and new parents health advice and gifts, faces a fine for
illegally sharing more than a million people's personal data with the Labour Party.The UK's data watchdog intends to issue the owner of the
disclosing it might do so.The firm disputes the findings.It said it had not been given an opportunity to respond to the Information
Commissioner's Office's complaints before the report was published"As a result, details of the ICO's findings, including those being
reported by the press, contain significant factual inaccuracies which we trust will be corrected," said a spokeswoman for Lifecycle
Marketing.She declined, however, to say what the errors were.It is common for political parties to buy personal information to target their
campaigns, but appropriate consent must have been obtained by the providers.Labour has said that it will review its "approach to acquiring
data from third parties" in light of the report.One legal expert said the intervention was likely to cause wider concern.Image
copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
Labour gained 32 seats in the 2017 general election
"After the Obama
campaigns, political parties saw the need to step up their data game, and at the time the playing field was not worked out," said Sam Fowles
from Cornerstone Barristers."They will certainly be worried now about whether they overstepped the mark in light of this."Mothers and
childrenThe Information Commissioner's Office revealed its planned punishment in a footnote to a report about the misuse of personal data
during the Brexit referendum.It said it would not normally announce its intention to impose a fine until it had completed its inquiries, but
believed in this case that there was an "overriding public interest to do so".The ICO said that on 5 May 2017, Lifecycle Marketing has
supplied 1,065,200 records to the data broker Experian Marketing Services for use by Labour.Each record included:the name of the parent who
had joined Emma's Diarytheir home addresswhether children up to the age of five were presentthe birth dates of the mother and childrenThe
ICO said the Buckinghamshire-based Lifecycle Marketing had understood the data would be used by a mail campaign promoting Labour's
family-friendly policies in 106 constituencies.Free nappiesEmma's Diary is promoted by the Royal College of General Practitioners among
others, and its information packs are distributed by many GPs and midwives.Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
Many
families sign up to Emma's Diary online or via its registration forms
The benefits of joining include tailored emails with
pregnancy and breastfeeding advice, as well as discount vouchers for high street stores and gift packs including nappies, baby wipes and
other similar items.A companion app also allows mothers-to-be to keep a journal of their pregnancies and make a time-lapse video of their
growing bumps.The business' privacy policy stated that in return for such benefits, users permit third parties to contact them for marketing
purposes.But while the policy had listed several business sectors and specific companies that might get the data, the ICO said there had
been no mention of political parties.In fact, the watchdog added, the policy was only amended to do so in January 2018 after the ICO had
told the company it was under investigation.This, the regulator concluded, breached the Data Protection Act's "fairness" requirement that
organisations be transparent about how gathered personal data might be used.It added that there may also have been a breach of the European
Convention on Human Rights.In considering the size of its penalty, the watchdog said it had taken into account that it understood Lifecycle
Marketing had not shared personal data with a political party on any other occasion, and had expected the information to be deleted after
the general election vote.But it added that it was not clear how the firm could be confident that the data had indeed been permanently
erased.The ICO added that it would make a final ruling after hearing back from Lifecycle Marketing, and would confirm the size of the
penalty on or after 30 July."[We] will be submitting our written representations to challenge the ICO's findings in accordance with the
usual process," said a spokeswoman for Lifecycle Marketing in response.Careful thinkingThe Royal College of General Practitioners
acknowledged it had a "long-running relationship" with Emma's Diary but added that it "does not hold or receive data and has had no
involvement in the case being investigated".Experian Marketing Services said that it was aware of the ICO's concerns and would "remain
vigilant when it comes to data security and integrity".Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption
A new law - GDPR - has
introduced tougher penalties for data breaches
The ICO has said it wants the UK's 11 main political parties to have their
data-sharing practices audited later this year and said it also has "outstanding enquiries with a number of data brokers"."[In the past]
there had been a much looser interpretation of the fairness principle, and it wasn't applied as tightly and rigorously as it has been in
this case," Mr Fowles explained."Now we see this is the direction of travel for the Information Commissioner, companies and political
parties are going to have to think very carefully about what they told people when they took data from them."Did you sign up to Emma's Diary
How do you feel about your personal data potentially being shared without your consent Email haveyoursay@TheIndianSubcontinent.co.uk.Please
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