Cherished Number Plates News

Your Details Worth Just £2.50 To DVLA

05 December 2008

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is still selling the names and addresses of motorists to wheel-clamping firms without carrying out checks on their background and credentials, despite a pledge by Ministers to introduce tougher controls.

Over three years ago, the British public were assured that their valuable details would not simply be given out to anyone who wants it, however it seems now that they are continuing to do just that.

Action was promised after The Mail on Sunday disclosed that drivers' details were being sold by the DVLA for £2.50 a time to unlicensed operators and even to criminals imprisoned for extortion.

The Department for Transport responded by bringing in fresh checks on about 80 companies entitled to receive information via a secure electronic link to the DVLA database of Britain's 38million motorists..

The transport minister assured the public that: 'Protecting the privacy and confidentiality of individuals is critical' to them.

At present, the details are still being released to almost anyone who applies to get them. Only one of every 1000 applications are rejected. Those who apply be post hardly ever undergo any kind of security screening and are given the details of the sought after person for just £2.50.

All they have to do is fill in a form entitled Request For Information For Those Who Issue A Parking Charge Notice and send it back to the DVLA.

This is just the latest piece of news to reach the public concerning the questionable use of our details by the government and individuals. Recent scandals of millions of details being lost and possibly sold on have gotten a lot of people nervous. Your address and your personal details are very sensitive pieces of information. With them, anyone can request false documentation to be made, run-up your credit card bill or hack into your bank account simply by taking advantage of one of these government slip ups. Some thing has to be done quickly about these obvious breaches of our personal security.

In the modern world where Big Brother seems to watching around every corner, this recent discovery is unacceptable.