Last October, HM Revenue & Customs lost two CD-ROMs containing the personal details of all families in the UK with a child under the age of 16 - a total of about 25m people. The government was further embarrassed in January when three Ministry of Defence laptops containing personal data were stolen.
The trade body has argued that these errors, combined with the overwhelming weight of direct communications, have made the public more reluctant to part with their personal information.
The DMA claimed that big-name brands, such as Facebook, losing or inadequ-ately protecting customers' data has also made people wary. It said that being a household name is no longer enough to assure customers and warned confidence will return only if 'companies involved in direct marketing have in place robust and accountable data and online security measures that they promote to consumers'.
The research, conducted through the Future Foundation, quizzed 2000 people face-to-face. They were also asked to complete a diary of when they received direct communications and how they responded to them.
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