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UK: Labour attacked over mailshot to cancer patients

Posted on April 12, 2010 by Dissent

Chris Hastings, Maurice Chittenden and Nyta Mann report:

The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have attacked the Labour Party for sending “alarmist” literature to cancer patients, and called for an inquiry into whether NHS databases had been used to identify recipients.

The row erupted after Labour sent cancer patients mailshots saying that their lives may be at risk under a Conservative government.

[…]

Labour sources deny that the party has used any confidential information. However, the sources admit that, in line with other political parties, it uses socio-demographic research that is commercially and publicly available.

[…]

The cards are being distributed by Ravensworth, part of Tangent Communications, which has won accounts sending out mail for the Department of Health and Cancer Research UK.

Tangent claims that it specialises in “highly targeted marketing”.

[…]

Experian, the data management company, confirmed that both Labour and the Conservatives use its Mosaic database, which divides voters into 67 groups. The databases can use anonymised hospital statistics, including postcodes and the diagnoses of patients, to identify the likely addresses of those with particular illnesses.

Conservative former shadow home secretary David Davis called on Labour to ensure the company responsible for the mailshot made the sources of its address lists available for independent review. If it turned out that they had used private medical data, it would be “a scandal of enormous magnitude”, said Mr Davis.

A Labour spokesman said: “The Labour Party would never specifically target any material at people suffering from a medical condition. To suggest otherwise is categorically untrue.

Read more on TimesOnline.

If commercial databases can be used to identify the likely addresses of those with particular diagnoses so that they can be addressed by name in a mailing, such databases should be barred for commercial and political use. The NHS has already been criticized repeatedly over data breaches and over the fact that too many people have access to sensitive information. This situation, assuming that the NHS databases weren’t directly used for the mailing, makes it clear how much sensitive health information may also be in the hands of commercial data brokers. Did NHS patients ever consent to have their diagnoses become part of an “anonymized” database that could eventually be linked back to them by data mining? How many demonstrations do we need to see that “anonymized” databases can be de-anonymized?

Receiving a postcard with your name and revelation that you suffer from a particular illness or diagnosis is a horrifying disregard for patient privacy. Even if Labour obtained the list via legal means, shame on them for not considering that their mailing may have revealed health information about people that should be treated as confidential.

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