DVLA denies selling data to Castrol

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) has launched an investigation into an oil company using registration and vehicle data for marketing purposes.

Castrol used the information for a roadside advertising campaign that informed drivers of the right oil for their cars. Cameras captured the registration number of cars travelling on five major routes in London. These numbers and Castrol's recommended oil products for the associated vehicles were then flashed on giant billboards. Using DVLA data, Castrol were able to discern a car's make, year, engine size and model of vehicle. It could then automatically recommend the right product.

The DVLA forced Castrol to shut down the planned two-week advertising campaign on the fourth day after being alerted by The Mail on Sunday.

In a statement, the DVLA said it did not sell Castrol the data and denied providing any data to Castrol or receiving any fee in relation to the marketing campaign.

According to The Mail on Sunday, Castrol used another firm to obtain the data, which is believed to have contained most of the 34 million-strong driver details held by the DVLA. The DVLA does sell data of this kind, but it must not be used for marketing purposes. It is believed one of the five motor industry data providers usually sold to by the DVLA passed on the data. But both the DVLA and Castrol have refused to identify the provider in question.

A DVLA spokesman said: "We have not provided any vehicle information to Castrol or received any fee from them in relation to their campaign. As soon as we became aware that vehicle information had been used inappropriately we contacted the organisation concerned to ensure this was stopped and are urgently investigating the case."

Kevin Clinton, of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said the adverts were "inappropriate" and could distract drivers.

He added: "If adverts are personalised and targeted at individual drivers, they are more likely to catch and hold their attention. If the DVLA database is being used in this way, we believe that is inappropriate as it is allowing a private company to target drivers in a way that is distracting them."

Chris Sedgwick, Castrol's UK & Ireland marketing director, said: "We conducted this campaign as a short-term extension to the long-term service we have been running by web and text for years and believed it was entirely in line with the service provided by our data supplier.

"As soon as we were alerted to the issue we took steps to cease the interactive trial. Castrol does not have direct access to DVLA data."