The British privacy authority issued fines of £120,000 (€137,000) to campaign group Leave.EU and insurance company Eldon for privacy violations linked to the Brexit campaign, the watchdog said today.
“It is deeply concerning that sensitive personal data gathered for political purposes was later used for insurance purposes; and vice versa. It should never have happened,” said Elizabeth Denham, the U.K.’s Information Commissioner.
The Information Commissioner’s Office said the two companies were placed under audit and were found to have breached rules because they mixed up their data to target political messages.
“The ICO investigation found that Leave.EU and Eldon Insurance were closely linked. Systems for segregating the personal data of insurance customers’ from that of political subscribers’ were ineffective. This resulted in Leave.EU using Eldon Insurance customers’ details unlawfully to send almost 300,000 political marketing messages,” the watchdog said in a statement.
The ICO said it would conduct an audit on the companies that could lead to more fines, and imposed an enforcement notice on Eldon Insurance to comply with marketing rules.