UK Electoral Roll

[DavidWW]

.....snipped...........
If current electoral roll info is being made available to organisations such as “onlinesearches” you would imagine there would be some sort of reference to such on the website of the Government Authority responsible for such data whatever that may be. If such info is to be made available online it beats me why that Authority doesn’t just put it there.
........snipped..................Alan

Very simply, because they sell the info , to companies such as this.

(For anyone's local district, they can pop into a library and see the local constituency roll.)

I haven't used this company, but have used the equivalent service available on www.192.com , which has the advantage of telephone numbers as well.

As far as current electoral roll info is concerned, it has to be noted that the information sold by the guvmint is no longer 100% complete, as it's been an option on the Registration of Electors form for several years to have your info excluded (I did just that an hour ago ).

In a similar vein an ever increasing number of folk have gone ex-directory for their telephone details, - it saves those "we're in your area and can offer you a 999% discount on a new kitchen" calls, which always come at the most inconvenient time; and always come when you're expecting an important call, so that you have to answer !!

I'm sure that there's other services as good as 192.com , - it's just that I've used it for approaching 5 years, with no problems. You might not like the prices and pricing structure (not greatly different from those at onlinesearches), but they have to recover the large sums that they have to pay to get the electoral roll info and the telephone number info.

David

PS DVLA in Swansea (for non-UK readers, the driver licensing authority, and the vehicle licensing authority in the UK), also sell your details to anyone prepared to pay the price; and there's no box you can tick to opt out
dww

PPS As regards paying more for BMD copies than is the case on direct application to GROS/GRO/GRONI (possibly via various sites that hold the indexes), there's a number of companies out there who make a bl***y good business out of attracting business from the genealogically "innocent" who don't know the ropes, so to write. Several of these companies have a web address that is very similar to that of the official sites, so that, unless you are aware of the actual situation, it can be hard to spot the difference. Costs of £30 to £40 for a simple search and certificate copy are far from unusual

But then, if you don't have the expertise and the knowledge that the combined cost of a search and certificate in England & Wales could be as low as around £10; or as low as £6 in Scotland (I'm unsure about NI or Dublin), then you might be perfectly happy to pay the premium ............
dww

[emanday]

PS DVLA in Swansea (for non-UK readers, the driver licensing authority, and the vehicle licensing authority in the UK), also sell your details to anyone prepared to pay the price; and there's no box you can tick to opt out
dww

I thought ALL organsiations had to provide the option to stop your details being sold to third parties?

Are you saying that the "guvmint" (luv that by the way) doesn't comply with its own Data Protection laws?

Sneaky wee things!

[DavidWW]

PS DVLA in Swansea (for non-UK readers, the driver licensing authority, and the vehicle licensing authority in the UK), also sell your details to anyone prepared to pay the price; and there's no box you can tick to opt out
dww

I thought ALL organsiations had to provide the option to stop your details being sold to third parties?

Are you saying that the "guvmint" (luv that by the way) doesn't comply with its own Data Protection laws?

Sneaky wee things!

Apparantly not in the case of DVLA, unless, of course, there's a tiny wee box that has to be ticked in some remote part of the form in a miniscule font, that I've never discovered.......

I also have the sneaking suspicion that the UK DP laws don't apply to guvmint departments and agencies

David

[emanday]

I also have the sneaking suspicion that the UK DP laws don't apply to guvmint departments and agencies

Sneaky indeed

I'd always assumed that they might pass information between the departments, but never thought they'd sell it for commercial purposes.

Since we haven't got a "steam coming out of ears" smiley will just have to do

[JustJean]

Glad to see this one got sorted while I snoozed. I had heard from another source yesterday that there were two rolls so to speak...one that could be opted out of by "ticking the box".....and I just wondered how many UKites were aware of this. Doesn't sound like it's well known to me. While it does look sneaky of your "guvmint" to sell the data and it looks even more like a shady set up with this particular search company it also looks like everyone is well within their rights! Don't blame someone for trying to make a buck (oh right...that should be a pound ) I'm still tempted to just try it out to see what kind of results can be obtained. Just because a company has a mailboxes etc address and voicemail doesn't mean they're dishonest. It doesn't take a corporate headquarters to manage a website.......take TS for examaple.....

Best wishes
Jean

[emanday]

It doesn't take a corporate headquarters to manage a website.......take TS for examaple.....

True, but TS doesn't charge for help and we don't ask people for credit card details.

I see that site as one of those "jump on the bandwagon" sites, trying to make money out of the increased interest in family research. I suppose your are right that whether they are genuine or not cannot just be based on the mailbox agency and voicemail use, but I'd rather have names and addresses of the owners than this anonymous setup.

Come to think of it - shouldn't that information be displayed?

[Currie]

I’ve never been happy with the concept that it’s OK for any government to sell off databases of people who have registered to vote or who have motor vehicle licences or car registrations or pensions or anything at all to whoever comes up with the cash.

Info on the Electoral Commission site I previously referred to http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/y ... access.cfm implies that they will sell it to anyone, including organisations such as the Mafia or whatever and if the information is used for dishonest or illegal purposes it has nothing to do with them.

The information supplied by the people on the database was supplied by them for one purpose and one purpose only and that had nothing to do with providing marketers with an easy way of putting their foot in the door.

I would rather see this practice stopped than the way it is now. Current electoral rolls have no genealogical use unless you are going to use the same techniques used by the marketers i.e. ring up or call on possible relatives looking for “hits”. There are plenty of ways in which people who want to be contacted by family members can make their name accessible without compromising their privacy.

A better system, but not for the marketers, might be that everyone goes on the protected Full Register and ticks a box if they want to be included on The Edited Register and have their information sold to anyone with the cash and for any purpose.

Frankly, Jean, I wouldn’t touch it with a 1219cm pole. The shortcomings and doubts about the site previously raised still exist, the genealogical info it provides is available more cheaply elsewhere. Why bother?

Alan

[DavidWW]

I’ve never been happy with the concept that it’s OK for any government to sell off databases of people who have registered to vote or who have motor vehicle licences or car registrations or pensions or anything at all to whoever comes up with the cash.

Info on the Electoral Commission site I previously referred to http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/y ... access.cfm implies that they will sell it to anyone, including organisations such as the Mafia or whatever and if the information is used for dishonest or illegal purposes it has nothing to do with them.

The information supplied by the people on the database was supplied by them for one purpose and one purpose only and that had nothing to do with providing marketers with an easy way of putting their foot in the door.

All agreed !, so write to the Scottish Executive !!

I would rather see this practice stopped than the way it is now. Current electoral rolls have no genealogical use unless you are going to use the same techniques used by the marketers i.e. ring up or call on possible relatives looking for “hits”. There are plenty of ways in which people who want to be contacted by family members can make their name accessible without compromising their privacy.

Not quite, as searching forward in the UK records, easier in Scotland compared with the rest of the UK, looking for living relatives, perhaps as distant as 4th or 5th cousins, means that researchers are often faced with needing to establish contact details for living cousins, with 192.com and the like being extremely important and relevant resources as regards the info contained in electoral rolls and telephone directories.

And that's on the basis of many succesful such forward searches for living relatives in a purely genealogical sense, as well as similar succesful forward searches for the Scottish legatees of wills in countries around the world, - the latter are much more difficult than the former as the latter requires the identification of all living relatives, whereas the former only require a link to some living cousins, who, very often, can supply links to other living relatives ............

David

[Currie]

I'll let what I've posted stand on it's merits without any further comment on the matter.

Alan

[DavidWW]

I'll let what I've posted stand on it's merits without any further comment on the matter.

Alan

Ehhh , - non comprendo .............

David