The UK government is planning on selling the personal financial data of millions of taxpayers to private companies for profit.

HM Revenue & Customs is drafting legislation that would allow it to release “anonymous” data on millions of taxpayers to private companies, researchers and public bodies.

The government hasn’t even consulted the public before deciding to sell on their private tax information to anyone willing to pay. Instead, it's tried to sneak in the changes unnoticed -- they were buried in hundreds of pages of ordinary budget documents.

Use the form on the right to tell HMRC not to sell our personal financial information to private firms for profit.

The government has misled people over “anonymous” data in the past -- supposedly unidentifiable health information turned out to include age, ethnicity, gender, postal code and NHS number.

Senior MPs are calling the plan “dangerous” and “borderline insane” at a time when gigabytes of data can be downloaded and sent around the world in milliseconds. The information would allow credit rating agencies to delve into people’s personal finances, and marketers and retailers could use it to practise price discrimination.

The legislation could be passed any day now. But if enough people stand up for their right to privacy, the government will have no choice but to back down -- or risk its popularity in the year before the General Election.

Tell HMRC not to betray public confidence, and scrap plans to sell people’s personal financial data.