ITPro reports:
The way that the Department for Education (DfE) handles sensitive data on children and students needs a thorough independent investigation, experts argue, following revelations that one of its datasets had been used to help betting companies target new customers.
The data scare was flagged in an investigation by The Sunday Times, but IT Pro’s sister title PC Pro revealed it may be the tip of the iceberg amid accusations that the DfE’s systems aren’t fit for purpose. The Sunday Times reported how one of the DfE’s datasets – the 28-million-file strong Learning Records Service (LRS) – had been used by a company called GBG to help betting firms verify ages. In fact, betting companies did not have access to the data, but GBG allegedly worked with another company, called Trustopia, to check the age of people seeking new accounts.
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