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UK councils' benefits pages push credit card adverts

In February 2020 the BBC Shared Data Unit reported high-interest credit card ads were being targeted at people seeking benefits advice on UK local council websites.

We used the open source software webXray to take a snapshot over two days last October of more than 400 council benefits pages.

This found:

  • More than half of UK councils had third-party advertising cookies on their benefits pages - a total of 950 cookies (small text files that track people on the internet)
  • More than two-thirds of councils did not appear to ask for the correct form of consent under privacy laws
  • Examples of targeted adverts on benefits pages seen by the BBC included high-interest credit cards, Black Friday deals, sports cars with features for disabled people and private funeral care plans

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said it would assess the findings.

The advertising industry denied using data from vulnerable residents.

This piece of content was produced by a regional newspaper reporter working alongside BBC staff.

The Shared Data Unit makes data journalism available to news organisations across the media industry, as part of a partnership between the BBC and the News Media Association. Stories generated by the partnership included:

The story was also used by BBC Radio Sheffield, BBC Radio Derby, BBC Radio Cornwall and the BBC's Politix and Chill podcast.

Visualisation

  • Bar chart: Percentage of UK councils' benefits pages with third-party advertising cookies (by nation)

Here is the data

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