The faux-Labour group ‘Labour Against Antisemitism’ – which in spite of its name has no standing with the Labour Party and which has frequently been accused of vindictive trolling on social media – was exposed this week sending unsolicited emails to CLP (constituency Labour party) secretaries in an apparent breach of data protection laws.
The group subsequently claimed, in a bizarre tweet that unilaterally and irrelevantly mentioned Israel, this was fine because it harvested the email addresses from Google:
Sorry to disappoint @skwawkbox but there was no secret conspiracy or ‘hand of Israel’ behind how we got these email addresses.
We simply found them on google.#LabourAntisemitism https://t.co/maffBVuUY9
— LAAS (@LabourAgainstAS) August 15, 2018
However, as others pointed out on Twitter – even if this claim is true, data laws do not allow such mailings without the explicit permission of the ‘data subject’ to use his/her email address for that specific purpose, which many CLP secretaries claimed they had not given.
Now another apparent breach has emerged, in the form of an attempt by the group to ‘name and shame’ a Labour NEC (National Executive Committee) member who had simply asked to be removed from its email list.
When Darren Williams – who does not seem to have ever asked to be included in LAAS mailings – asked to stop receiving them, as he had every right to do, instead of simply complying as data laws require, LAAS tweeted a screengrab of his request with a snide comment:
Under UK data protection laws, data breaches can attract huge fines imposed by the Information Commissioner, as well as incurring police action.
LAAS was contacted for comment on its cavalier approach to data and data protection in the case of Darren Williams. The group has not responded.
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