Local station ticket office survey - Labour Party

[Sue]

I got a flyer through the door, as I imagine most people did, with a QR code etc to complete a local Labour Party survey on the closure of the station ticket office.

All was fine until I got right to the end, where there is no way to submit the survey without opting in to receive communications from the Labour Party, including by phone,  even if you are registered with the Telephone Preference Service.

To be clear, that is apparently any communication, not just communications about this specific issue.

It says you can opt out in future -  but you can't opt out at this point.

I think this is really sneaky. I am no longer a member of the Labour Party, and whilst I think Helen Hayes is an excellent and committed constituency MP, I opted out of communications from her at the same time as I left the Labour Party. 

The reason I didn't reply by post was because I thought it would still be sitting in the sorting office in a year's time. However I have just looked at the form and I see that in very tiny font at the bottom it says exactly the same thing about opting in.

I have made my feelings known in the comments section of the survey, but I wonder what other people think about this? 

[Jenijenjen]

It's not just the Labour Party, many years ago now I signed a petition originating from the LibDems. Within a few days, I was receiving emails from Nick Clegg (it was that long ago) which was quite a shock. I don't know whether there were options to opt out when signing the petition, there could have been and I just didn't notice.  James Barber was also very quick to add names to the LibDem mailing list.  Anyway, I sent a very irate email back to the LibDems and I haven't heard from them since. 

[h3+]

Your phone number and email address were optional on the form as i recall so you could submit it without providing those. Although I guess they could still write you letter.... 

[Penguin68]

27 minutes ago, h3+ said:

Although I guess they could still write you letter....

At least that has a cost to it!

[Sue]

33 minutes ago, Penguin68 said:

At least that has a cost to it!

🤣

1 hour ago, h3+ said:

Your phone number and email address were optional on the form as i recall so you could submit it without providing those. Although I guess they could still write you letter.... 

But I was quite happy to receive updates about this particular issue, just not other stuff (which I imagine would have included asking for donations).

[colville09]

I had exactly the same experience as Jenijenjen with the Lib Dem petition of being added to The Lib Dem via database without my permission via James Barker. I had to ring their press office and complain. How cynical and arrogant of the Labour Party to exploit a real local concern to harvest email contacts. I despair…

[Spartacus]

Possibly also breaking GDPR rules 

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/lawful-basis/a-guide-to-lawful-basis/lawful-basis-for-processing/consent/

[heartblock]

The Labour Party had a significant data breach after a third party responsible for handling membership data on their behalf was subject to a cyber incident, I think in 2021?

To my knowledge they  never released any further details regarding the exact nature of the incident and how it occurred. It is also was unclear exactly what information was exposed in the breach.

The data included information provided by members, registered affiliated supporters, and other individuals. 

I was contacted and told when still a member (3 years ago?) and after I left they were still sending me emails... I had to ask them 3 times to remove all my personal information from their database under the personal information act. I’m not sure, but I think some ex-members who had left years before also had data breached.