I know it’s a money-maker, but I hate when government agencies are permitted to sell their databases to commercial firms. Here’s a report from Flintshire in the U.K.:
Flintshire County Council is making thousands of pounds a year selling electoral roll data to credit companies.
A Freedom of Information act by the Chronicle revealed £10,640 has been paid to the authority in exchange for personal information about some of the county’s 150,000 residents over the past five years.
And a privacy campaign group has claimed the sale of data from the council’s edited register – which contains only the names of people who have not opted out of the main roll – leads to residents being inundated with junk mail.
From the financial year 2007/2008 to 2011/2012, the authority made £350 from selling on edited register information to a law firm, a marketing company, a money advice group, a church, the Grosvenor Estate and members of the public.
Read more on Flintshire Council.