And then there were two. Last week it was a house in Sheffield. Now it’s one in Manchester. Are these two raids connected?
A house in Greater Manchester has been raided by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as part of an investigation into illegal trading of personal data.
The raid at the Stretford property was prompted by intelligence which suggested a person living at the address may have broken the law around data protection by unlawfully accessing personal information.
Michael Shaw, enforcement manager at the ICO, said:
“We raided this house in a bid to gather more evidence about the links in the chain of illegal personal data trading.
The buying and selling of people’s information fuels the nuisance call industry and we’re determined to stamp it out.”
Unlawfully obtaining or accessing personal data is a criminal offence under section 55 of the Data Protection Act 1998.
The offence is punishable by way of fine only issued by the courts. The ICO continues to call for more effective deterrent sentences, including the threat of prison, to be available to the courts to stop the unlawful use of personal information.