GOC admits mistakenly sharing personal data

Personal data belonging to General Optical Council registrants has been mistakenly shared by the regulator with three optical organisations that purchased information earlier this year.

The GOC, which contacted affected registrants earlier this week to apologise for the leak, said the details were passed on where registrants had selected a home address as a main point of contact.

Full details of the organisations have not been disclosed, but the GOC told Optician that the recipients of the lists were a high street multiple, an education provider and a marketing firm, who between them contacted registrants by post five times earlier this year. According to the GOC, all parties have destroyed the purchased information.