George Kidd, the chief commissioner of The Direct Marketing Commission, said it would be investigating two firms . Two firms exposed by the Daily Mail as selling private information are to be probed by the industry watchdog. B2C Data sold our undercover reporters the financial data of 15,000 people – including details about their pension pots, incomes and investments. The second firm – Data Bubble – supplied our team with health details on 3,000 patients – such as whether they suffered from high blood pressure, arthritis or even bladder problems. The Direct Marketing Commission said it would probe both companies over claims that they had breached the rules on the sale of private data. It confirmed it was ‘formally investigating two companies following allegations in the Daily Mail that personal data was shared inappropriately and without the consent of users’. George Kidd, the chief commissioner, said: ‘The allegations in the Daily Mail are serious. People must be able to trust those with whom they share their data. We will look carefully at the roles and conduct of these two companies and advise the Direct Marketing Association on our findings quickly.’ The firms are already at the centre of a major probe by the Information Commissioner’s Office, which said the sale of such details was ‘on the face of it, a very serious breach of the Data Protection Act’. In meetings covertly filmed by our reporters, bosses at B2C Data were seen boasting of how they held thousands of details on every family in Britain. One, Gareth Doran, boasted: ‘We know what clothes they buy, what health products they buy, where they go on holiday, how many times they go on holiday, what income they’ve got, whether they have children.’ Data Bubble bosses offered to provide our reporters with the names of people with ‘different ailments’ for around 16p each. When asked how the information was obtained, the firm’s owner, hypnotherapist Joanne Clayton, said: ‘It could be people who bought mobility products from a catalogue … or even if they’ve been on holiday and they’ve ticked to say that they are needing help on the flight with regards to that, we can then identify that they actually have problems with mobility.’ Data Bubble owner Joanne Clayton, pictured, said that they obtained information from people who brought products in a mobility catalogue . Both companies sold the records despite not carrying out checks on the Mail’s bogus cold calling firm. Had they done so they would have quickly discovered it was simply a website and was not registered or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The announcement follows calls – led by David Cameron – for a clampdown on companies found guilty of selling personal data without consent. The Prime Minister suggested on Monday night that the law would be tightened if loopholes were being exploited by unscrupulous cold callers.
The Direct Marketing Commission probing B2C Data and Data Bubble .
Investigating whether they breached rules on the sale of private data .
Chief commissioner described allegations made about firms as 'serious'