This week, we set our sights on charities and data protection, as some of the UK's biggest charities have come under fire for ignoring warnings surrounding the buying and selling of donor data.
Every week at Markets for Good we hear of the inspiring and innovative ways in which nonprofits and charities are harnessing the power of data to make a lasting impact. Policies surrounding data protection and privacy, particularly when it becomes to donor data, are extremely controversial. In the headlines this week, some of the biggest charities in the UK have come under fire for the misuse of donor data, having believed that as charitable organisations, they were ‘a special case’, and tried to find ‘wiggle room’ according to the Information Commissioner Christopher Graham as reported in the Telegraph.
Some of the UK’s biggest charities ignored warnings that it was illegal to buy and sell donor data because they considered themselves above the law, according to Christopher Graham’s statement for the House of Commons Select Committee.
According to the Information Commissioner, several charities had also ignored warnings not to share data or ignore the TPS, which registers individuals who do not wished to be cold-called. The protection of donor data has been widely reported in the UK media, particularly following the death of Olive Cooke, Britain’s longest serving poppy seller who received thousands of calls from charities asking for money.
To find out more about this story by reading the original story, ‘Britain’s Biggest Charities Believed They Were ‘Above the Law’ on Data Protection’ on the Telegraph.
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