Electoral register and GDPR - how is it legal to be required to have your full name and address available to anyone who wants to look you up?

[PutItAwayDear]

I know you can opt out of the open register so your details can't be sold on to marketing companies etc.

But the electoral register is a public document that anyone can pitch up amd view at a library, and access is given automatically to all political parties for example.

And it's a legal requirement to register, with a potential fine for not doing so.

So... What if I don't want anyone to be able to look me up on the electoral register? What if I don't want political parties to have access to my details? I want to register and I want to vote but I don't my full name and address to be in the public domain and I don't understand how it's GDPR compliant

Don't want my full name and address to be in the public domain, that should say!

You can opt out of the open register

www.gov.uk/electoral-register/opt-out-of-the-open-register

It's a choice you make. If you opt out then your email isn't included, even in the version at the library.

GDPR doesn't mean no information can ever be shared, just that there has to be reason for it, or permission given.

Yes I know, I said that in my opening sentence.

But you can't opt out of the full register and the full register can be viewed in libraries by anyone who wants to look.

Because it's exempt from requiring consent, under article 6 of the GDPR.

Even if you opt out of the open register there is no way to prevent your details being passed to political parties or viewed by anyone who wants to look though!

It's a legal requirement to register so hardly "a choice"

I thought I'd added that, AskMe

OP - do you know that your name and address is not deemed to be private information, that it is always in the public domain unless you have exceptional circumstances?

ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/electoral-register/

My library has taken the online electoral register facility away, as well as the paper based versions and has informed users that they can go up to the council offices to view them, is this legal?

I made 2 points, 1 about it being a choice to not be on the Open Register...

... the 2nd is your misunderstanding of what GDPR actually is. It isn't a way of making us all anonymous. And a legal requirement trumps your choice!

Just opt out and your name and address won't be sold on!

Curious OP has explained, very clearly that it is not the 'opt out' which is a problem, it's the fact that the address is public. You cannot opt out of giving your address.

I agree with the OP, but in certain cases, it is possible to be excluded in the case of DV.

Yanbu OP but there is no way round it.

I have a common name, unusual middle name and rare surname - the combination of the 3 means my full name is pretty much unique. The lack of privacy caused by the electoral roll is a worry for people like me.

There are a number of interesting elements to the Data Protection Act 2018 which mean that information about you can be shared, perfectly legally, without your knowledge.

As a PP has said, the electoral register is one of them, but also, if you contact an elected official (Councillor or MP) for help or with a complaint, then that elected official can ask relevant agencies for details of their interaction with you (such as treatment at a hospital or details from a benefits office) and those agencies are legally allowed to share your information with the elected official (or their representative) without having to seek your explicit permission.

Consent is not the only lawful basis for processing data under the GDPR. There are 6 lawful bases and no single basis is more important than any of the others.

ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/lawful-basis-for-processing

I would guess that the lawful basis for processing the electoral register data is legal obligation rather than consent.

An open electoral register is pretty important in terms of democracy. Much like open courts and reporting in the vast majority of cases. Data being kept private is important in most cases, but in terms of electoral registers the bigger picture is deemed more important.

Like the right to peaceful protest and political gathering are pretty damn important, but you can't do those (or even really discuss who you are personally voting for) in a polling station. There are very few (any?) absolute rights.

Twenty or thirty years ago, Thoms Directory would publish who lived at every address, and phone books would publish the addresses and phone numbers of about 99% of people. There are lots of situations where you are legally required to give your address; if you are in a court case that is reported on it will often give your street address making you very traceable even if you aren't convicted of a crime.

I think people presume a level of right to privacy that doesn't really exist: on the one hand we're very blasé about corporations having access to incredibly intrusive data but on the other hand the fact its possible for very committed people to find out who lives at our address (because lets face it not many people will go to the library) is assumed to be somehow illegal.

If you want to feel freaked out, get an ancestry.com trial: depending on when you were born, its very possible for ransomers to find your birth certificate online with nothing more than a free trial and some basic knowledge.

depending on when you were born, its very possible for ransomers to find your birth certificate online with nothing more than a free trial and some basic knowledge.

Not quite right. Anyone can search for the index but you'd have to pay for the actual certificate. The info you can get for free is quite limited.

Having said that, I find it quite scary how quickly I can find people on ancestry (paid subscription), birth, marriage, children's names and ages, then confirm it all on open Facebook pages... It is amazing how many people will record their full date of birth on a page that is open to the public; usually with loads of pictures of "Evie on her 4th birthday", "Evie in her [branded] school uniform on her first day". I'm sure that with both paid ancestry and paid 192 subs you could have a field day

My local council's website states that they can only confirm whether someone does or doesn't live at a given address - they can't tell you who lives at an address. Access to the register is under supervision, time limited. Certain organisations can apply for a copy for specific purposes. The inform

...the information is kept in street order not alphabetical order of surname, so if you wanted to look for a specific person, unless you had a good idea of where they lived, you would need to look through an awful lot of addresses. I would imagine it's similar in other areas?

Years ago political parties would hand out this data to people they hardly knew, for canvassing help. Things may be different now.