Birds of a feather
Ministers snoop on 16m house sales - Telegraph
Ministers are facing calls to scrap a controversial secret contract that gives Government officials access to detailed records of 16 million houses and property sales....
The Government has gone ahead with a deal with Rightmove, an online property search firm, to give HM Customs and Revenue [HMRC] staff access to its records of transactions.
The records contain details about individual properties, including their sale price as well as any internal features and modifications that may add to their value.
A copy of the contract between HMRC's Valuation Office Agency and Rightmove, released under the Freedom of Information Act, shows that Rightmove is bound by the Official Secrets Act and all its staff must sign a confidentiality agreement.
Rightmove keeps data on 16 million properties, and says it added 3.3 million records to its files in December alone.
Answers to parliamentary questions have revealed that officials are now in "commercially sensitive" talks over the extension of the Rightmove contract when it expires in March.
Eric Pickles MP, the Tory shadow secretary of state for local government, said it should not be renewed.
"The public will be alarmed that detailed information on 9 out of 10 house sales and rentals are secretly being passed from estate agents to tax spies without the public's knowledge or agreement. This is a shocking sign of the growing surveillance state under Gordon Brown."
Estate agents, tax spies, and the Labour government; they must all get on the shameless stygian pit of slime.
