38Degrees.org.uk/hmrc-petition have sent me an email asking for support for their petition to stop HMRC who are apparently planning to sell off tax data to private companies.
Does anyone know about this?
If it is true is it legal under Data Protection legislation?
If it is true and you want to support their petition the above URL provides a way to vote.
Replies (8)
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Yes it's been in the news a lot over he last week or so. There's even an article about it on the Latest News section of this very website!
Slightly dishonest
The fact that the data is to be anonymised AND aggregated is a key point of the proposal. Not mentioning this is significantly misrepresenting the facts. It's like proposing banning a chemical that is known to be corrosive and has killed many people and not mentioning that chemical is water. 38Degrees did not mention that the data is to be anonymised, however as others have said how reliable are the HMRC anonymising processes going to be.
That the anonymising of data may not be carried out properly is a genuine concern. Not mentioning it at all makes the petition one I do not wish to see my name attached to.
I thought the same as you
The fact that the data is to be anonymised AND aggregated is a key point of the proposal. Not mentioning this is significantly misrepresenting the facts. It's like proposing banning a chemical that is known to be corrosive and has killed many people and not mentioning that chemical is water. 38Degrees did not mention that the data is to be anonymised, however as others have said how reliable are the HMRC anonymising processes going to be.That the anonymising of data may not be carried out properly is a genuine concern. Not mentioning it at all makes the petition one I do not wish to see my name attached to.
My first thought when I received the 38Degrees e-mail this morning was the same as yours; if they don't stick to the facts then they are not coming across as legitimate as they should and you wonder if it was an oversight or whether they are just trying to sway people by not giving them all the facts. I agree it is an issue but 38Degrees should have been totally upfront about it as it does make a difference to the way some people would vote.
But you have to give 38 degrees some personal details to lodge your complaint against misuse of data, that's ironic!
? Previous thread
a week or so as well.
I don't believe that there was any suggestion then about selling either?
Even with benefit of the doubt
I'd be willing to give the benefit of the doubt over the selling question. The proposal includes passing the information to commercial organisations, and I would hope that businesses would at least be charged for access.
But, even assuming that the anonymity issue was an accidental oversight and not a deliberate distortion, it is still a problem. It gives an excuse for ignoring the petition entirely. "Clearly all these people thought we were going to just hand over their tax records. That's not what we are proposing so everything's fine." It's a bit like being seen to be independent as an auditor. Credibility is a valuable commodity.
Not linking
Credibility and the people hosting the petition. I never said anything about credibility and HMRC. You are just misinterpreting so you can get in more HMRC-bashing. Have you anything constructive to add to the conversation? Credibility and HMRC, now that's a novel concept.