December 12, 2016

An ICO investigation has found that the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and the British Heart Foundation (BHF) secretly screened millions of their donors so they could target them for more money,

The ICO said that so-called “wealth screening” was one of three different ways both charities breached the Data Protection Act by failing to handle donors’ personal data consistent with the legislation.

The charities also traced and targeted new or lapsed donors by piecing together personal information obtained from other sources. In addition, they traded personal details with other charities creating a massive pool of donor data for sale.

Donors were not informed of these practices, and so were unable to consent or object.

The investigation was one of a number into the fundraising practices of charities. The investigations were sparked by reports in the media about repeated and significant pressure on supporters to contribute.

The Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham said: “Our investigations suggest that the activities we’ve fined the RSPCA and the British Heart Foundation for today are also being carried out by some other charities. This widespread disregard for people’s privacy will be a concern to donors, but so will the thought that the contributions people have made to good causes could now be used to pay a regulator’s fine for their charity’s misuse of personal information”.

Ms Denham has exercised her discretion in significantly reducing the level of the fines, taking into account the risk of adding to any distress caused to donors by the charities’ actions, particularly in the context of potential further penalties in the sector as a result of ongoing investigations. She fined the RSPCA £25,000 and BHF £18,000.

She said: “My exercise of discretion should not take away from how serious these breaches were, nor from how disappointed donors will be with the two charities we’ve fined today. The law exists to protect people’s rights and it applies irrespective of how altruistic the organisation’s motives might otherwise be”.

The ICO says that in similar situations, fines could have been ten times as much. To read the ICO’s press release in full and for links to the monetary penalty notices, click here.