UK watchdog urged to probe GDPR failures in Home Office eVisa rollout

Civil society groups are urging the UK's data watchdog to investigate whether the Home Office's digital-only eVisa scheme is breaching GDPR, sounding the alarm about systemic data errors and design failures that are exposing sensitive personal information while leaving migrants unable to prove their lawful status.

In a joint letter [PDF] to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), coordinated by the Open Rights Group, the signatories argue that the Home Office has failed to meet its data protection and equality obligations, despite rolling out a system that replaces physical proof-of-immigration status with a live, online record checked in real time. When that system breaks, they say, people are locked out of work, housing, travel, education, and essential services, with no meaningful fallback.

The groups cite a "high volume" of data errors linked to the eVisa scheme, which they say amount to both operational failures and serious data protection ...