It’s a case of ‘Do As We Tell You’ not ‘Do As We Do’ as Labour is the latest political party caught out for flouting privacy laws when canvassing

The Labour Party has embarrassingly been told off for breaching the privacy rights of 500,000 people in a canvassing campaign, when it sent the recipients a recorded message of actress Liz Dawn telling them to vote labour. Unsolicited automated telephone calls without consent breach the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Regulations) 2003. A member of the public complained in July 2007 that they were receiving those calls, but the Information Commissioner’s Office – the UK data protection regulator – received further complains in 2009. The ICO has served an enforcement notice on Labour  requiring the Party to ensure no further automated direct marketing calls are made without consent. If Labour breaches the enforcement notice, they could be fined. Labour is not the only Party at it – the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Scottish National Party have all received enforcement notices in the past for employing the same tactics. It seems to be a case of the politicians making the law for everyone else to comply with, but thinking they are above the law – sound familiar?