Emma’s Diary data breach compensation advice

IMPORTANT: WE ARE NO LONGER ABLE TO TAKE ON CLAIMS FOR THIS BREACH

The Emma’s Diary data breach involved the company behind Emma’s Diary, Lifestyle Marketing (Mother and Baby) Ltd, selling personal data without consent.

The company has been fined £140,000.00 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for illegally collecting and selling the personal data of some one million people. The data was sold to Experian Marketing Services who used the information for the Labour Party to specifically profile new mums to target them in the lead-up to the 2017 snap General Election.

Our Data Leak Lawyers are available now for advice to victims of the breach who can be eligible to claim for data breach compensation.

About the Emma’s Diary data breach

The Emma’s Diary data breach involved 1,065,220 personal records being illegally collected and sold to Experian Marketing Services so the Labour Party could target new mums with direct mail in areas with marginal seats. The data collected was moulded into a database where the Labour Party could profile new mums to market to them directly.

It’s understood that the marketing material sent to victims was promoting the Labour Party’s policy for Sure Start Children’s centres, and with the data for new mums in their arsenal, they were able to specifically market to their target audience.

The information misused in the Emma’s Diary data breach included:

• Names;
• Postal addresses;
• Data as to children at the household
• Birth dates.

Privacy policy leads to Emma’s Diary data breach

It was the privacy policy that led to the Emma’s Diary data breach. Victims were not told that the personal information handed over to Emma’s Diary, which is a division of Lifecycle Marketing Group Limited (“LMG”), would be used for political marketing, or indeed by political parties at all.

Because the privacy policy failed to disclose that the personal data given by victims of the Emma’s Diary data breach would be used in such a way, the organisation is in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998.

This case is said to be one of many that the ICO has been looking into when it comes to data used for political purposes. The UK’s 11 primary political parties are already on notice from the data watchdog that their data policies will be audited this year.

As part of a statement released by the ICO, they said:

“All organisations involved in political campaigning must use personal information in ways that are transparent, lawful and understood by the UK public.”

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