UK privacy regulator warns political party about unlawful direct marketing during 2017 general election campaign

After investigation, the UK's privacy regulatory, the Information Commissioner's Office has found that two small sections of the written scripts used by Blue Telecoms, a marketing firm that made calls on behalf of the Conservative Party during the 2017 general election, crossed the line from legitimate market research to unlawful direct marketing. The ICO has issued a warning to the Conservative Party rather than launching a formal regulatory action because, it says, the overall campaign was genuine market research and the results were not saved in such a way that individuals could later be targeted for marketing. The ICO says it will continue to monitor all political parties in the run-up to future elections to ensure they comply with data protection and privacy laws.

https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-and-events/news-and-blogs/2017/10/blog-when-political-market-research-crosses-the-line/

Writer: ICO

Publication: ICO blog