Guardian — Crackdown on firms stealing personal data

David Leigh — 15 November 2006
The information commissioner signalled a crackdown last night on companies that steal and sell sensitive details of people’s private lives after a prosecution exposed the growth in data theft.

Richard Thomas, the official privacy watchdog, said he was investigating a number of organisations that have bought personal data such as details of bank accounts, tax returns and mortgage payments. He warned of raids and prosecutions after the conviction yesterday of a husband and wife who made £140,000 a year selling private financial information obtained by deception.

According to the Commissioner’s press release, the couple got the information through ‘blagging’. We’ve all done that!

(Makes a change from the ‘pretexting’ that went on before the recent Hewlett Packard shenanigans.)