The Good Law Project has filed a landmark legal claim against Reform UK in the High Court, over the far-right party’s alleged breaches of data protection laws.
The Good Law Project has launched legal action against Nigel Farage’s Reform on behalf of 51 individuals, claiming the party failed to comply with data protection laws by ignoring data subject access requests (DSARs) and subsequent legal letters.
The non-profit campaign company has launched a fundraiser to cover the legal costs of the case. It states on its page: “Before the general election, thousands of Good Law Project supporters joined our #StopTargetingMe campaign and demanded that political parties level with them about their personal data – as the law requires. But Farage’s Reform replied to hardly anyone. Why not? And what are they hiding? To quote Farage, we’re “just asking questions”.
Under GDPR laws, individuals are allowed to request information held about them by each party and demand that their data not be used for further political purposes.
The Good Law Project created a tool that allowed voters to ask political parties what data they had on them. The tool also allowed people to demand political parties delete all the data they held about them and not process their data in the future.
Almost all (96%) of the people surveyed by Good Law Project who used the tool to contact Reform UK said the party had failed to respond to their data requests.
The Good Law Project states: “That’s why we’re standing up to Reform and forcing them to put in place systems and procedures that respect people’s rights. We can’t let Farage’s Reform get away with this.
“We’re now putting together a group claim to make Reform stick to the same rules as everyone else.”
The Good Law Project fundraiser is located here.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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