Despite her apologies, Tory critics say the issues raise concerns about her campaign’s handling of sensitive information ahead of next year’s local elections.
The most recent incident occurred on a Facebook page called Community Action, which Cllr Davis runs to promote local community matters.
A photo used as the page’s profile picture showed Cllr Davis with fellow Waddon Labour councillor Ellily Ponnuthurai holding a clipboard with a petition supporting the reopening of Wandle Park café, which has been closed for several years.
Several names, email addresses, and partial home addresses of petitioners were clearly visible in the image. Cllr Davis told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that she was not aware of this issue and admitted this was the first she had heard of it when contacted by our reporter.
Cllr Davis said she had not received any complaints from the page’s 372 followers and has since apologised, blurred the image, and consulted with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). However, this incident has drawn criticism from Conservative councillors, whom she will face in the elections next May.
Jason Cummings, Conservative councillor and Cabinet Member, told the LDRS: “This is the second occasion within a week that we know about where Labour’s candidate for Mayor has publicised highly sensitive details about local residents. Those affected will rightly be concerned about this disregard for personal data.”
He added: “The candidate should again refer herself to the Information Commissioner, and Croydon Labour must immediately contact those affected to apologise, as well as working to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
This recent incident follows another last week, when Cllr Davis’s campaign inadvertently exposed the email addresses of over 300 supporters. An email, sent last Wednesday evening (September 10), invited recipients to a community meeting but did not use the blind copy (BCC) function, meaning recipients could see each other’s addresses.
This contravened GDPR regulations and the 2018 Data Protection Act, leading Cllr Davis to refer herself to the ICO. After realising the error, she published an apology later that evening.
Acknowledging last week’s incident, Cllr Davis told the LDRS: “We immediately apologised to those affected and put safeguards in place to ensure this does not happen again, including making sure every email goes through a secure server. No data beyond email addresses was shared.
“We took advice from the Information Commissioner’s Office, who said this did not need to be reported, but we did anyway because we care about this.”
The ICO confirmed to the LDRS that it received her referral and is assessing whether a breach took place.
However, regarding the Facebook page incident, Cllr Davis criticised her Conservative opponents. She told the LDRS: “If the Conservatives cared one jot about residents’ security, they should have contacted us immediately so we could have made the changes.
“Instead, they went to the press and never raised a thing with me. That tells you everything you need to know about their motives. However, I’m glad that Croydon Conservatives are paying such close attention to this petition at last.”
