The State sells information you thought was private

[Paul Kennedy]

Mail on Sunday:

 

"The Government has made ?15million in the past five years by selling the names and addresses of more than six million motorists to wheel clampers and car park operators.

 

Nearly 70 private firms, including bailiffs, debt collectors, solicitors and finance companies, are allowed access to the database of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, which holds personal information about Britain's 38million drivers.

 

 

Armed with this data, enforcement companies then demand huge sums of money from motorists whom they accuse of parking on privately owned land or staying too long in supermarket, hospital and railway car parks.

 

 

One recipient of this sensitive information is a controversial clamping company, Creative Car Park Management, whose sole director is a debt-ridden Lithuanian businessman.

 

 

Rolandas Silanskas, 36, divides his time between his family home in the Baltic state and a shabby two-bedroom house on a council estate in Edgware, North London. "

 

And when push comes to shove, will a hard pressed Government sell more personal details if and when it introduces ID cards.

 

It seems to me that selling ownership details of cars to any Tom, Dick or Rolandas is just asking for serious trouble, who knows in reality what they really want that information for....find out who owns a car...and then go and steal it from them or worse!

 

It is a disgraceful state of affairs....I thought there was a data protection act to stop such abuse of private information.

[asperity]

Exactly why we need a National Identity Register (Database) like a collective hole in the head. Your private data is NOT safe with government or any of its agencies.