Party’s outsourcing and subsequent loss of data to criminals is hitting local parties in their bank accounts
Labour’s outsourcing of its membership system to private contractor Tangent led to a massive data breach in which the sensitive data of hundreds of thousands of members – and, scandalously, ex-members including victims of the purge of left members and councillors – was stolen by criminals. This appears certain to include financial information, but the party did not inform victims of the breach for months after it occurred.
And now local party groups are being hit by direct financial consequences of the breach too. A Labour national executive member has admitted that the party doesn’t now even know how many current members it has – though it knows the number is massively down from its peak under Jeremy Corbyn – and this is hitting ‘CLPs’, the constituency units that form the basis of Labour’s presence at large, in their bank accounts.
Under Labour’s rules members’ dues go to the central party, which doles out a small portion of those dues back to local parties for their activities. But now the party is not paying – and has told local officers that the data breach is the reason.
Of course, with the collapse of Labour’s finances now being openly, if quietly, admitted among the party’s right and its media friends it’s also possible that the breach is a useful excuse for something Labour central would rather avoid doing anyway, but that’s the story.
And it looks like the data loss is permanent: according to an email sent by Labour general secretary David Evans, Tangent refused to pay the ‘ransom’ demanded by the criminals, who have permanently corrupted it and prevented Labour from accessing it. Five months after the initial breach and two months after the party admitted it to its members, Labour’s membership system is still down and it’s hard to see how the cash-strapped husk of what was recently a great party can afford what must be the massive task of rebuilding its database.
All this is, of course, gold dust for the Tories’ next general election campaign: ‘How can you vote for Labour to run the country when they can’t run themselves? How can they keep you safe when they can’t protect their own members?’ It will be as toxic – and probably even more effective – than the 2015 ploy of claiming a Labour government would mean the break-up of the UK.
Skwawkbox view:
The Labour right has made the party a sick joke and the whole country, especially the many millions of poor and hungry, will suffer because of their arrogance. The betrayal is unforgivable.
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I have no wish to go off on a tangent but didn’t Portland figure highly in the anti corbyn AS scam who are also owners of?…and funded the Labour extemists “Labour first” …OH what a tangled web you weave “?
What the hell were they thinking of? It is standard practice to back data up, with the backup in a separate secure location, so if one set is lost or corrupted little harm is done. What on earth was going on here?
From what I can gather from the extremely sparse information we are
allowed from Evans and co – the data WAS backed up – but only until
a specified date – sometime in 2021?
I don’t know whether the lack of back-up after this date was because
of the poor practices of “Tangent” or because that was the date their
data was compromised.
Tangent is owned by Portland Asset Management. Tangent employed an ex-Labour employee who worked for BICOM to process this DATA. Tangent were the company who were hacked and were held to ransom by the hackers. Tangent refused to pay, so consequently the hackers deleted or corrupted the DATA, and Labour say it’s lost. Do they have back ups? If not why not, and also why are they letting a BICOM ‘agent’ handle members DATA?
Labour is corrupt and is letting another Country meddle in it’s affairs, as we already know.
Do what I do. As an ex member I donate £5 per month directly to my local Party. NONE to Starmer’s crew.
I donate Nothing and never will again.
Me either. I have also donated thousands of pounds over the 40 years I was a member. Not one cent will they get in future from me. Labour LOST £13m in member donations over 2019-2020. Total now stands at £800,000.
Oh, you two!!
Brace yerselves for a thorough savaging from the
dead sheep worrieruber-member that is the wee fella.You’ve been warned…😏
Toffee. Apologies for being pedantic but last time I looked it was goats rather than sheep.
🤭
If it wasn’t so damn serious, it’d be hilarious. So many basic questions such as why no backup?!?!
Still, the Tory campaign will be accurate. Because these fraggles cannot run themselves…and whoever wins, it’ll still be same old tories
NVLA…….I think the court cases could drag on for years or until I am dead or the Labour party are.We are paying for expert witnesses who cover a whole spectrum on technology,Data management and company law.This shitshow in my opinion is down to a narrow group of chums from Surrey and S.London.
Naturally I have been asked Not to comment but as I am like many old ex Labour members who are in the departure lounge.if we don’t now we may never do to the wider audiences….Time will not tell and it is a advantage to The Surrey,south London mob to drag this legal action against the Labour party and others out.infinitum.I ask that Labour party members stop funding this shitshow and pouring your money away into any more bottom feeders lawyers to fight against us.
Are you scared of running out of money.
When I am up against the parasites infesting the Labour party that dont give a toss about throwing members money away then I am concerned especially as the people we are discussing are part of the bottom feeders profession and are extremely talanted at asking for money.Now being concerned about funding is not my concern especially as the case is good and solid.I am more concerned about the Labour party who may be bankrupt soon and the sub contracted company.
I agree wholeheartedly with Skwawkbox’s closing comments -The Labour Rights betrayal will never be forgiven.
What they did – demonising Jeremy Corbyn in collusion with the BBC, MSM, the establishment , Zionist lobbyists etc thereby inflicting Boris Johnson on us – was truly vile and disgusting and many of them paid the price for it at the ballot box I’m glad to say. They continue to snipe at Jeremy and do all they can to damage and undermine him and his socialist beliefs while backing Johnson in everything that matters.
Furthermore under Keir Starmer’s leadership our Socialist, Anti Zionist, Muslim, BAME, Irish, Kashmiri members and supporters have been deliberately alienated. Without their support we are therefore facing a Tory government until at least the end of this decade which will delight Starmer and his backers. Starmer will ride off into the sunset(House of Lords , directorships , consultancy roles, the after dinner speech circuit etc )leaving a bankrupt, blue Labour party behind him- job done.
Are we ready to take over a bankrupt Labour party
The point has been made who would vote for a party that could not run a bath
Arise the Socialist Party
LOL The Scab collective AKA The Labour Party really is in the toilet 🙂
It’s Dead Jim and not before time.
Well it’s certainly not life as we know it.
This outcome is what Labour’s RW wanted, isn’t it?
A party with next to no members and for the unlucky few that remain, invasive, intrusive social media post history vetting while being sidelined to the role akin to that of a cheering fan club. Funding being a select few big money donors, whose business model profit / loss, could be deeply affected by govt policy changes, though who’ll swear their funding comes with no ulterior motives or or strings attached. Just like the pure altruism of Bernie Ecclestone’s £1m gift to New Labour.
General elections reduced to a question of who has the ‘X-factor’ and seems the most Prime Ministerial, not meaty substantial manifesto offers. Labour’s right see democracy and democratic debate as dangerous. The whole idea of the great unwashed (dogs, a rabble, Trots as Tom Watson and the PLP right labelled the supporter influx). The idea of these people having their say is an anathema to Labour’s right.
*is anathema – no ‘an’ preceding. – typo
So we have the name of the company now…
Okay, a quick Google of tangent and it seems they are in the data analysis sector. So, I thought outsourcing would be fine if, say, the party used some cloud storage third party. But giving personal data to a *data analysis* cinpany without members’ explicit permission seems to be a very clear cut breach of GDPR! We can expect very hefty fines and expensive compensation bill.
The Labour Party is… dead.
With Johnson on his way out, we can expect an early GE as soon as the Tories recover their losses in the polls when they have a new leader (summer 2022?)
We need a new proper left wing party ASAP.
Who will do it?
(I can’t, I’m very sick)
One of the criteria mentioned in emails to those affected was “data profiling”. I am an ex member, what possible ligitimate reason would they have to “profile” me?
We don’t know that whoever has taken this data, hasn’t taken a copy, or what they would (potentially) do with it. Political data is given a higher status under GDPR because of the danger of it falling into the hands of those with malign intentions.
This has further implications wider than the serious financial issues this throws up. Some of those affected are vulnerable women, who do not want their former abusive partners to know their whereabouts. Some are ex members with false allegations against them. Imagine if an unscrupulous entity got hold of a copy of the stolen database. It could have potential for blacklisting of “lefties” in the wrong hands.
It’s a crock of shit.
There was no mention of “data profiling” I the email I received!
Ben Lapointe
16/01/2022 at 4:22 pm
“There was no mention of “data profiling” I the email I received!”
To the original notification, I followed up with an application for a Subject Access Request. I was sent an email from Labour Party – Privacy <privacy@labour.org.uk This was dated 30 Novemer 21.
"Hello
Thank you for making a subject access request (otherwise known as a “SAR”). We will respond to your query as quickly as we can, as we are currently receiving a large volume of enquiries. If you have not already provided the below, please send that to dataprotection@labour.org.uk"
Note, the originating email is different to the address I had to reply to (also requesting photo ID – yeah right). Indicating that they may not be able to access the original email address acount, or have limited access, or what? Who knows? It continues –
"The Labour Party will also include the following information as part of your request:
• Any profiling carried out using your personal data
• Personal data transfers internationally
• Other rights available to you under the GDPR
• Retention periods
• Your right to complain to the regulator"
Note that there is no use of my name just an informal and unprofessional "hello". It's signed "Yours sincerely,
Data Protection Team | The Labour Party"
No formal use of my name, or any indication of the person who has sent the email to whom I need to reply to.
So, why all so anonymous, if this is all above board? I'm still waiting for a reply.
Nemtona – ” Indicating that they may not be able to access the original email address account, or have limited access, or what? “
….or far more likely they simply have a separate team dealing with ID verification.
Hi Ben Some of us are trying to bring Left unions together to talk to Breakthrough (now a legally formed Democratic Socialist Party) and Resist (a legal socialist party too) and one such party with some union backing I believe has a better chance.
Tangent appears to be connected with Portland. Mandelson has his fingers deep in Portland. It appears Owen Smiths abortive leadership bid was organised from Portland. Presumably the party paid Tangent/Portland a fee when they outsourced the data to them. This money will find its way back to Mandelson,, who can use it to continue to fund training courses for Labour candidates and permanent staffers, much as Progress did for years. This is why so many key posts in the party are held by right-wingers, who did their worst to sabotage the last attempt at a left-wing leadership, will if needs be do it again if the necessity ever arises and are happy to push the current rounds of purges and persecutions. It appears we have been very neatly stitched up. This sort of thing needs to be dragged out in the open.
ADVICE Please Comrades.
I stopped my membership payment to <starmer'sLabour some months ago now. I didn’t formally tell any of the new* CLP officials. Neither did I tell the party formally. I just cancelled my membership fee payment mechanism with my bank.
It was obviously an intentional act on my part – but no one knows this, do they.
Question is: Worrying about how duplicitous and self-serving the ‘new management’ of the party is, and (thanks Nemtona) that the Starmer scoundrell gang running the party could even be ‘selling’ (sorry, “outsourcing”) my data to exploitative capitalism partners/colleagues and abusing my rights to data security under GDPR (The General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679), and, of course, that unless I tell them I have left, they can pretend I havent, how should I inform the party that I am now proud to have left them and consider myself a “former member”?
Knowing these sneaky reprobates, until I tell them, they’ll be thinking of me as a nuisance-member in arrears (a wasteful eater as one of their . Any advice anyone – best way to make my departure noticeable – and modesty aside, but because there are potentially 200,000 others in my situation – maximally irritating to them?
* Starmer and Evans (and the local newish MP) ensured that ‘friendly’ members took over all CLP roles at the AGM in 2020 and so, like many tens of people who saw this clumsy sectarian control-freakery for what it was, and given that a national “emergency” was being used by the Starmer-clique to oppress and suppress democracy in ‘controlled’ CLPs, I distanced myself from the ‘new’ CLP before I cancelled my payment mechanism and haven’t told them yet.
See my reply below at 4:14pm
https://skwawkbox.org/2022/01/16/exclusive-labours-data-breach-means-local-parties-not-receiving-their-owed-funds/#comment-211523
I just emailed them make it insulting as person preference of course. But make damn sure you inform them from x date you are no longer a member and you defiantly don’t wish to be contacted by them again and remove any data ho ho from you on there system.
I believe that contains all the high points of what you wish Sir and yes the faster a socialist only Labour movement gets it’s backside in gear so we can start rebuilding to take on this Tory scum the better. I recon I have one last good fight left in me…
Oh and the stay and fight brigade don’t bother I will never give money or support to the Torys even the lite version in the old Labour party. You stay a member your supporting them it’s that simple rationalise it how you wish but don’t kid yourself or others it’s staying for noble cause because it’s not!
quertboi…I am sure Steve H Hall centrist Dad will have made a note of your circumstances and will be most helpful in passing on your concerns….regards from the jungle quertboi.
Jodeph -On the contrary, Unlike you I have answered qwertboi’s request for help
If the well has been poisoned then its time to move on
But
Who gets the compensation and will it arrive before March 15th
Toffee
RESULT
You’re more than welcome to the fat blert, mate.
Dunno why but I got a feeling he was angling after the Saudi dollar ‘cos the barcode fans would’ve much preferred him to Eddie Howe, and if Howe can’t keep them up (if fatty had stayed yous woulda been 6pts better off after playing us twice come the end of the season) then they’ll plump (pun intended) for beneathus.
His appointment was every bit as much a ‘fuck you’ to Evertonians as smarmer’s second ref shithousery was to to labour (especially ‘leave’) voters nationwide.
The state of that smarmerite labour party and Everton FC have many, many parallels.
Either of kenwright(and moshiri) or smarmer to go next. The sooner both are gone…
Oh and I forgot to mention the ‘old guard’ i.e. Duncan Ferguson. Another (kenwright enabled) hanger on. Bit like Rayner, lammy and the other leeches, all bending over for their (new) boss, whatever their philosophy or background. 😕
Meanwhile, the shitshow continues…
Toffee
Temporary Embarrassment and the fat blert, which is the spiv and which is the thief
Fast Eddie is fine by me
Evertonian, is Eddie.
I’d have had him here a few years back (under tutelage of Joe Royle or perhaps Peter Reid for a season) when he left burnley to go back to Bournemouth.
But anyway like bliar/smarmer and the party, all trace of kenwright has to be removed before my club will prosper again.😕
And Clint Eastwood is an honorary member of the Jordi tribe
His favourite beer is Newcastle Brown Ale
So the question is
Are you feeling lucky
Bonnie Lad
Having left the Labour Party this week! They’re not getting any money from me! I’d sue Tangent and a backup is not a backup unless you can recover your data after an incident. They should have backed up the data to another service besides Tangent! Yet they keep saying the grownups are in charge!
qwertboi – It isn’t Labour’s fault that you have failed to make your intentions clear.
You can find a resignation form here, https://labour.org.uk/contact/membership-resignation-form/
it wasn’t at all difficult to find.
Labour has contracted a third party to process date on their behalf, doing this is specifically catered for under the regulations which even detail the obligations that both parties have under GDPR and the regulations. Labour have not sold or gifted your data to a third party without your consent (that would be against the law)
Stick to sock puppetry you know nothing of data requirements. We live in a two party confirmation state that means for the stupid they HAVE to get permission to take your data and give it to a 3rd party they also have top tell you who this company is BTW! They have NO right to keeping past membership ending especially if you informed them to remove as so many of us DID Steve!
Now this next bit of right wing BS is the most insidious let me spell it out if they remove your data from there control hand it to a 3rd party they have to as you permission as you may object to this under multiple grounds they did not then they confounded this by so many more ways hiding the name of the sodding company from the bleeding NEC that BTW if Labour goes bankrupt are personally responsible to pay the fines bet there sweating bullets that NEC seat isn’t quite as attractive now is it!
Anyhow I digress they have deliberately not informed members for months after they knew of the breach. They didn’t ask permission to remove our data or keep said data past membership termination and it looks like they have no bleeding clue of who is a sodding member as there database they did recover an out of date version. That’s why they have no clue of current membership figures and can only guess!
They are NOT paying CLP’s either because of the breach or because there broke go figure! They hid the initial penetration for months and only informed the police and others after they were ransomed and they didn’t pay so the hackers corrupted there master database and it’s gone! The bleeding idiots are still complaining who is responsible them or this company burning up the last of the members money with expensive Legal fees like the morons they are.
So yes they have broken GDPR and in line for a record fine and I recommend getting a bulk order of popcorn or snack of your choice as there liable to sell out quick as this spectacle is a long time Cumming. I wonder if they will still be able to pay sock puppets to come lie on political blogs. They can send out nice lies to there payed sock puppets but that will not save them this time…
DG – “they HAVE to get permission to take your data and give it to a 3rd party they also have top tell you who this company is BTW!” I agree, BUT that isn’t what they’ve done, They have contracted a third party to process data on their behalf which is a completely different thing altogether. Have a dig around the ICO’s website and you will see that I am right.
When was the last time your utility company wrote to inform you that they were using a different mailing company?
No SteveH its not difficult to find – but why should (s)he?
Labour Party members are so angry now I can
perfectly understand why they would just cancel their
membership without resigning.
However the current Labour Party leadership has no
political nous whatsoever .. hence their comparatively
poor performance in the polls given the dire Tory Govt.
Mind you Ive been reading some of the political analysis
of Ed Millibands period of office and it is clear it was also
stuck with very poor political advice. I remember
very well the increase in Poll tax forecast (in around 2014?)
by the opposition which was never in a million years
going too happen – because it had already
happened in around 2010. Guess who was giving
advice during that period -? The usual suspects that’s who!
Just as soon as Johnson’s kicked out – the polls will recover
for the Tories ..
HFM – I guess you must have missed the bit where ‘qwertboi’ specifically asks “how should I inform the party that I am now proud to have left them and consider myself a “former member”?
I simply provided the link to facilitate this.
Elections roughly 16 weeks away. Surely the most urgent questions for the LP are “Are they skint?’ and “Will Branches have the funding to mount a half decent campaign?”
Astute observation gb. Can’t think of a better test for the remaining membership – many of whom will hardly be inspired enough by starmer to campaign for his candidates, never mind pay for it too.
“Will Branches have the funding to mount a half decent campaign?”
Will they have enough people willing to do the legwork??
Just as relevant, will Branches have sufficient boots on the ground to mount any kind of campaign?
Apparently the money isn’t going to branches properly so I think they won’t be able to put together a campaign. All due to the grownups in charge outsourcing to Tangent the membership data.
For clairity, ths is taken from the ICO Right to be informed site – .
At a glance
Individuals have the right to be informed about the collection and use of their personal data. This is a key transparency requirement under the UK GDPR.
You must provide individuals with information including: your purposes for processing their personal data, your retention periods for that personal data, and who it will be shared with. We call this ‘privacy information’.
You must provide privacy information to individuals at the time you collect their personal data from them.
If you obtain personal data from other sources, you must provide individuals with privacy information within a reasonable period of obtaining the data and no later than one month.
There are a few circumstances when you do not need to provide people with privacy information, such as if an individual already has the information or if it would involve a disproportionate effort to provide it to them.
The information you provide to people must be concise, transparent, intelligible, easily accessible, and it must use clear and plain language.
How many members knew of the collection and retention of their data? Or that it was being outsourced? The troll keeps talking of utility companies informing clients of their intention to use a third party. That’s the point, they inform customers. Labour have never informed members of their intentions.
Nemtona – You are deluding yourself, if you are a member this is what you have agreed to.– https://labour.org.uk/privacy-policy/
The law takes precedence Mr Heep.
Dave – Does it, if the data subject has already agreed to the privacy conditions and/or T&Cs then where is the crime?
Nemtona16/01/2022 AT 4:16 PM
I am an ex member, what possible ligitimate reason would they have to “profile” me?
SteveH16/01/2022 AT 6:37 PM
Nemtona – You are deluding yourself, if you are a member this is what you have agreed to.
Durrrr…George??!!
Toffee – ….and your point is what, that I missed what they had said in an earlier post?
The same or similar would have been in place when they were a member.
Except nemtona asks why they’re being profiled when NO LONGER a member.
An EX member.
Moron.
Toffee – but Nemtona didn’t say that they were being profiled.
SteveH16/01/2022 AT 4:14 PM
qwertboi – It isn’t Labour’s fault that you have failed to make your intentions clear.
Maybe,maybe not.
What IS clear is it’s keefs fault qwertboi did the Frank bough. And, by the looks of it, that reason’s not restricted to qwertboi, neither.
But he’s popular, is keef…😒
Toffee – I see my needy little stray dog is back.
Me, me, me…
Not really, just showing you up for the irredeemable nincompoop that you are, but giving the game away there, aren’t ya?
Toffee – I’m bored already, have fun playing with yourself.
Oh well, at least I’m not amusing meself while watching young goats play. 🤫
All these EX members telling you they’re Ex members (to a man all telling you it’s because of keef), and the only poster on here you try to lord it over for not being a member is yours truly.
I’d say I was honoured…But apparently I’m the ‘needy’ one.
Twerp.
If only they’d thought to back up the membership before Starmer and Evans had corrupted our once proud(er) party
When I resigned 10 seconds after the Neo-Liberal Lump of Wood became Leader my letter specifically asked them to remove all my personal details from their records.
As far as I am concerned they have broken GDPR rules and should be fined heavily and we should all be compensated for the worry they have caused to many.
Karma Right Wing Labour, is this what happens when you dabble in Neo-Liberal (outsourcing) practice?
Bazza – But it doesn’t really matter what you think, it is what the law and the regulations actually say that counts.
I suggest you read the three documents that are linked to at the very end of each and every page of Labour’s website.
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service
Terms and Conditions
and when you’ve done that have a look at the rest of the stuff that members agree to when they join or each time they renew their membership. https://labour.org.uk/members/my-welfare/my-rights-and-responsibilities/
https://labour.org.uk/privacy-policy/
“Some examples of how long we retain your data are as follows:
Names, addresses and values of donations given to the Labour Party – Indefinitely where we believe you may leave a legacy to the Labour Party. 7 years (from tax year of transaction) for all other financial data.
Call notes and correspondence: indefinitely where we believe you may leave a legacy to the Labour Party. 10 years for all other data.
Electoral Register data: we will retain this for a period of 15 years (subject to any updates we receive around a change of address);
Profiled data: any data subject to profiling is retained for a maximum of 7 years.
Interview notes: retained for 6 months and then securely destroyed.
Unless things have changed in the past couple of years, branches and CPs provide regular reports to their meetings, from the treasurer. It should be clear to members whether each CP/branch has received their dues. I assume that we all have contacts in the LP and should be able to find some more precise information about any shortfalls in funding.
Branches do provide reports to their members – the known
number of members is currently qualified by the daa breach.
However they keep their own private information so far as is
possible
Im not aware of finance being affected – YET ..
But – some of the rules and regs of the Labour Party
are still somewhat of a mystery to me .. as I “only” joined
in 2015!
However- so far as I can gather back-up of data worked until the
last few months of 2021 so the lack of funding may not
have come through yet?
The link to the Labour party site very helpfully provided (or not) by the troll shows the current privacy policy Ts&Cs.
What he doesn’t say (if he even knows), is that the privacy policy was updated a couple of months ago, as I expect it may have been several times since I left in 2017 and before GDPR replaced the previous DPA in 2018.
Very clever of me and all other members to have signed up to their policy before it was in existence.
They also opt out of informing members when they change their policies. If/when they change their policy, rather than alert members to their new policies, they are are expected to check the Labour party website.
If you are no longer a member (or even if you are) why would you check to see what Labour are doing or planning to do with your data? You wouldn’t.
Nemtona – So you left the party in the middle of Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure. Another shining example of solidarity.
He wil be bending over as much as he can to get a few big donors with favours owed. Corruption for the wee man comes naturally.