data firms trading in medical and financial records are working for state schools, dentists and the government, it emerged last night colleges admitted buying data on children from a company exposed by the mail for selling pensioners’ health secrets nhs dentists are also allegedly buying information on patients to offer free treatments before convincing them to go private scroll down for video  vidya mishra, who runs data firm prospect 360, claimed he sells data to nhs dentists so they can target poor people, who are more likely to have poor teeth  dentists then allegedly try to convince the patients to pay for private follow up treatments, according to mr mishra (pictured in an undercover video) vince cable’s department for business, innovation and skills, meanwhile, paid up to £15,000 to use one a data broker exposed by the mail, entrusting it to manage an email campaign targeting small businesses across the country it bought half a million records, with contact addresses gathered by cold calling receptionists and coaxing information from them the deal has emerged a day after david cameron described the mail’s revelations about the sale of personal data as ‘extremely serious’ and said he expected serious penalties to be imposed the government’s champion for older workers, dr ros altmann, said: ‘taxpayers will not want their money spent on enriching firms that have shown such careless disregard for citizens’ rights’ andy silvester, campaign director at the taxpayers’ alliance added: ‘civil servants should spend taxpayers’ money as if it’s their own, and that means checking who you’re giving it to it’s vital that there are better safeguards in place so that taxpayers’ money isn’t subsidising firms who are engaging in such questionable practices the department needs to seriously consider its current position’ the mail revealed yesterday how medical details on people with arthritis, diabetes, physical disabilities and even bladder problems were sold to an undercover reporter by joanne clayton, owner from data bubble joanne clayton (pictured) of data bubble revealed that her firm sells data on local parents to state academies, universities and higher education colleges  for 15p each, the colleges buy at least 3,000 records a time on parents in their catchment areas to invite them to open days  she also revealed her firm sells data on local parents to state academies, universities, and higher education colleges moulton college in northamptonshire, city of wolverhampton college and warwickshire college for 15p each, the colleges buy at least 3,000 records a time on parents in their catchment areas to invite them to open days ‘i do a lot of work with colleges by providing them with parents data,’ said mrs clayton, who also works as a hypnotherapist ‘parents of 15, 16, 17 year olds – so they’re a nice little earner for me, if i’m being honest ‘a lot of academies are wanting to speak to businesses in their local area they may not have the business information so they’ll come to me for the business data’ moulton college writes in an online testimonial that it bought 10,000 records from data bubble and as a result ‘our february open day was the busiest one we’d had for some time’ marketing director andrea hughes admitted the data was bought to target children ‘‘we purchased a list of parents of year 11 children within a ten mile radius of the college,’ she said ‘we had no cause for concern around data bubble and believe the mailing was successfulwe have no plans to use data bubble again’ undercover reporters from the mail also contacted data broker prospect360 with data bubble, it was one of three firms whose names were passed to the paper as having sold personal information on pensioners which ended up in the hands of people suspected of being involved in a major fraud mr mishra revealed that the department for business, innovation and skills was one of his clients  he boasted that the government had commissioned his firm to create and send out hundreds of thousands of emails under a scheme, to help small businesses at a cost of ‘ten, fifteen thousand pounds’ asked where they obtained the firms’ email addresses, mr mishra said call centres phoned receptionists to ask for information  prospect360 managing director vidya mishra offered to sell personal pensions data for as little as 5p a time and spoke of the benefits of targeting the vulnerable when making cold calls mr mishra, whose wife is a dentist, also claimed he sells data to nhs dentists so they can target poor people, who are more likely to have poor teeth dentists then allegedly try to convince the patients to pay for private follow up treatments mr mishra, 44, revealed that the department for business, innovation and skills was one of his clients he boasted that the government had commissioned his firm to create and send out hundreds of thousands of emails under a scheme, to help small businesses at a cost of ‘ten, fifteen thousand pounds’ asked where they obtained the firms’ email addresses, mr mishra said call centres phoned receptionists to ask for information warwickshire college admits online that it has used data bubble ‘again and again’ and ‘have no hesitation in recommending them’ but said yesterday it ‘will await the outcome of the investigation by the ico’ before deciding whether to use them again city of wolverhampton college said: ‘no details other than names and addresses of people who might be interested in further study were requested or obtained the college has no plans to use this organisation’s services in the future’ the department for business, innovation and skills said the deal with prospect360 was arranged through a third party it would not comment on the amount of taxpayers’ money it spent mrs clayton said: ‘we are a reputable data broker who supplies data legally it is our responsibility as a data broker to supply data within the laws and regulations surrounding our industry and we take those responsibilities very seriously’ mr mishra said: ‘we buy and supply data in good faith we never do anything underhand and we never misguide people’
data bubble department for business david cameron
schools have admitted buying data on children from firm data bubble  nhs dentists allegedly paid for information on patients to offer treatments  department for business paid a data broker to manage an email campaign  it bought half a million records with contact addresses from cold callers  comes day after david cameron said revelations were 'extremely serious'