Various people, including this writer, have reported Gerard Coyne’s illegal use of Labour Party data – which he admitted on air today – to the ICO with a request to investigate.
But the Labour Party also needs to investigate its own breach and make sure that appropate action is taken, so a clear message needs to be sent to the party’s General Secretary, Iain McNicol – with Jeremy Corbyn and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), so the strength of feeling among members and the desire for proper action is clearly communicated.
The email addresses for all three are below, along with a suggested template including some links to pertinent articles, but of course feel free to adapt or write your own.
Please drop a note in the comments of this article when you’ve done so, so the scale of the demand can be shown – McNicol hardly has a track record of appropriate action regarding the misdeeds of right-leaning Labour personnel, so pressure needs to be built and maintained:
Email addresses:
(IMPORTANT: put the ICO address in the ‘to’ field of your email along with McNicol’s as they will not take note of ‘cc’ emails)
iain_mcnicol@labour.org.uk
jeremy.corbyn.mp@parliament.uk
casework@ico.org.uk
Template:
Labour Data Protection Breach
Dear Iain,
My name is _____ and my Labour Party membership number is _____. I am concerned that the Labour Party have not handled my personal information correctly and that it has been passed to Gerard Coyne and his campaign team for their use in breach of the Data Protection Act.
Mr Coyne has admitted on the Pienaar’s Politics show that he had received data from Labour. He dismissed this as ‘agreed’ and ‘legitimate’, but neither Labour nor Mr Coyne have the right under the DPA to make any such agreement.
[Delete this paragraph if not applicable]
Although I am not a member of Unite and have never been, Mr Coyne has gained access to my contact details without my knowledge or permission and has used them to contact me about his campaign. This has caused me great concern.
Further information can be found via the links below:
https://skwawkbox.org/2017/04/02/gerard_coyne-admits-to-dpa-breach-on-live-national-radio/
https://skwawkbox.org/2017/04/01/exclusive-coynelabour-dpa-breach-involves-multiple-databases/
https://skwawkbox.org/2017/03/31/smoking-gun-coyne-campaign-is-using-illegally-obtained-owen-smith-data/
https://skwawkbox.org/2017/03/20/exclusive-coyne-campaign-emailing-non-unite-members-dpa-breach/
I am copying this email to the party leader’s office and the Information Commissioner and request that you investigate this breach fully and take every appropriate action to ensure that my data and those of other Labour members are handled in full compliance with the law and that those responsible for releasing my data wrongly are unable to do so again.
Please acknowledge receipt of this email, the action that will be taken and provide regular progress updates.
Yours faithfully,
etc.
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Well, I’ve sent a copy off, but with this and my complaint to my CLP this week I suspect my card will be well and truly marked
I have written to Iain McNicol. This is disgusting and very unprofessional.
Done thanks for all you do
I’ve emailed my details off.
I will keep you updated.
I won’t hold my breath.
Thanks, again, Sqwawkbox
Keep on the front-foot
Sid
Reblogged this on Sid's Blog and commented:
Thanks Swawkbox
Done in two minutes
Sid
Yup! Done it. Well worth the effort ( I hope)
Well I’ve sent my email off as well
Iv sent it off. See if we hear any thing. Probably suspend us instead hhaahaah
Thank you for your email to Iain McNicol, Labour Party General Secretary.
Due to the large number of emails received by this office please accept this as an acknowledgement that your email has been received. If you are copying me into correspondence this may be the only acknowledgement you receive.
We try to respond to all correspondence addressed to this office within 5 working days but if your query is governance related this may take longer. Some correspondence will be referred to the relevant department who will respond on my behalf.
Yours
Iain McNicol
General Secretary
As it happens, I had sent a complaint to the ICO but didn’t quite know how to go about it officially. Thanks for the info. Email sent to all. Will keep you informed.
Will do so first thing tomorrow.
I’ve emailed McNicol. I wont hold my breath waiting for a sensible reply though.
I have edited your template and sent emails to all three.
Email sent just now. Thank you Skwawkbox for making it so easy for us to do
Acknowledgment of receipt received from Iain McNicol’s office and the ICO
Here is the reply I received today relating to the email that I sent to Jeremy Corbyn. Please tell me what I’m supposed to make of it:
“Dear Ms Maunder
Many thanks for your email to Jeremy Corbyn MP. I will forward your correspondence to Iain McNicol, the Labour Party General Secretary, for his attention.
Kind regards.
Joss MacDonald
Correspondence Officer | Office of Jeremy Corbyn MP
Leader of the Opposition
House of Commons
London, SW1A 0AA
From: Wendé Maunder [mailto:wendewellspring@gmail.com]
Sent: 03 April 2017 08:59
To: CORBYN, Jeremy
Subject: Labour Data Protection Breach
Dear Jeremy
It has come to my notice that Gerald Coyne and his campaign team have incorrectly accessed my personal information, which is held by the Labour Party. This has been used in furtherance of his campaign to become the leader of Unite, and is a shocking breach of the Data Protection Act (DPA).
During Mr Coyne’s interview on Radio 5’s Pienaar’s Politics, he brazenly admitted to having acquired the personal details of members of the Labour Party and furthermore, dismissed this as ‘agreed’ and ‘legitimate. However, neither Labour nor Mr Coyne have the right under the DPA to make any such agreement.
I am very concerned about this breach of confidentiality, which runs counter to the terms of the Data Protection Act. I am also very shocked that the Labour Party appears have not to have treated my personal information with the discretion that is required of them.
Mr Coyne has admitted on the Pienaar’s Politics show that he had received data from Labour. He dismissed this as ‘agreed’ and ‘legitimate’, but neither Labour nor Mr Coyne have the right under the DPA to make any such agreement.
As a member of both the Labour Party and Unite, I am asking for an immediate and thorough investigation into this betrayal of my confidentiality.
I am copying this email to Iain McNicol, and the Information Commissioner and request that you fully investigate this breach and take every appropriate action to ensure that my data and those of other Labour members are handled in full compliance with the law and that those responsible for releasing my data wrongly are unable to do so again.
Please acknowledge receipt of this email and inform me of the action that will be taken and provide me with regular progress updates.
Yours sincerely
Mrs Wendy Maunder
Labour Party Membership: L1299747
Unite Membership: 20595036
UK Parliament Disclaimer: This e-mail is confidential to the intended recipient. If you have received it in error, please notify the sender and delete it from your system. Any unauthorised use, disclosure, or copying is not permitted. This e-mail has been checked for viruses, but no liability is accepted for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this e-mail. This e-mail address is not secure, is not encrypted and should not be used for sensitive data. “
It has to be done this way at least initially – proper party procedures have to be given chance to do their job. If/when they fail – well, that’s an unknown at the moment.
Email sent. I wouldn’t have known how to complain without Skawkbox. Thanks for doing what you do
Three copies sent. Thanks.
John
It is also worth sending a copy of your email to LP HO to each of the 6 CLP rep NEC members, so they can ask the relevant questions.
Sent to all three.
When I examined the headers to the emails I received, I noticed that the ones from Coyne were sent using Nationbuilder which is a program that The Labour Party uses for mailing lists, contacts, etc, whereas all the others from Unite come from unitetheunion.org – that probably doesn’t help though as I now notice the ones from Len’s campaign come through e-activist.com not unitetheunion.org
Hi I have just sent an email to all three addresses
Email response from Labour received. Sorry I can’t copy it across at the moment. Basically says it was not us and contact Coyne
I received an automatic response from Iain McNichol on Sunday. I got this response this morning at 9.30am, it’s from LABOUR PARTY MEMBERSHIP and they categorically state they didn’t give McNichol, or anyone else the membership data….the plot thickens.
Dear Terry
Thank you for contacting us regarding unsolicited communication from Gerard Coyne’s campaign.
We are unable to say how you were contacted by Mr Coyne’s campaign, and suggest you should contact his campaign directly to ask the source of their data they hold on you, and to remove any data they hold on you if you do not wish them to hold it.
The Labour Party is very clear that no data may be shared with any third party or other organisation, and take our obligations under the Data Protection Act very seriously. We have not supplied any Labour Party data to Mr Coyne or anybody else. Labour Party data is held and processed only for the legitimate purpose of running a political party.
Kind Regards
Lee-Ann
Communications Assistant
The Labour Party
I to received the email, below, form a communications assistant. Must be global response; unfortunately it is clear they have not read my original email as they respond incorrectly to my original email and does not answer any questions nor does it appear to take the allegations seriously. Just claims we do not divulge information.
Dear P
Thank you for contacting us regarding unsolicited communication from Gerard Coyne’s campaign.
We are unable to say how you were contacted by Mr Coyne’s campaign, and suggest you should contact his campaign directly to ask the source of their data they hold on you, and to remove any data they hold on you if you do not wish them to hold it.
The Labour Party is very clear that no data may be shared with any third party or other organisation, and take our obligations under the Data Protection Act very seriously. We have not supplied any Labour Party data to Mr Coyne or anybody else. Labour Party data is held and processed only for the legitimate purpose of running a political party.
Kind Regards
Lee-Ann
Communications Assistant
The Labour Party
Definitely a global response. But the statement, “We have not supplied any Labour Party data to Mr Coyne or anybody else.” more carefully, it’s much too vague for a categorical denial. So I think my complaint has not been dealt with in the correct manner. I intend to write a follow up letter and would be grateful for any further professional advice. Skwarkbox?
I’d write back pointing out that Coyne has publicly admitted it was Labour’s data, so a generic response is not good enough and you insist on a full – public – investigation. I’ll publish a template tonight so people can adapt it as required.
Was this matter ever investigated officially? If so, what was the result?