ICO reprimands Met Police over unlawful use of Auror retail crime platform

ICO findings over Auror use

The Information Commissioner's Office reprimanded London's Metropolitan Police Service and issued an enforcement notice after officers used Auror without formal approval or the required data protection checks. Between March 2023 and September 2024, officers registered around 500 free accounts on the retail crime platform.

Retailers paid for access and encouraged officers to use Auror, including directing them to the platform for CCTV footage. Auror Europe, registered in England and Wales, is a subsidiary of New Zealand based Auror. The force had not completed a data protection impact assessment or established data sharing agreements with Auror Europe.

Uploaded records and safeguards

According to the ICO, officers unlawfully uploaded personal data relating to 179 people, including three children. For 128 people the data consisted of names alone, for 49 names and dates of birth, and for two names, dates of birth and home addresses.

Two internal security reports were filed between August and September 2024. One concerned officers uploading names of suspects recognised from CCTV footage, and the other concerned officers collecting CCTV footage from the platform without checks. Access to Auror was blocked from September 26 2024. The ICO said the MPS relied too heavily on soft controls such as policy reminders and training rather than technical blocks, and had not tested whether web controls worked during more than 18 months of use.

Enforcement and resumed use

The MPS data protection officer told the ICO about the force's use of Auror in December 2024 during a separate discussion, and the watchdog opened a formal probe in April 2025. The ICO linked the case to a repeat failure involving Clearview AI in 2021 and said the failures remained ongoing because the force had not shown safeguards could prevent similar incidents.

The enforcement notice requires stronger safeguards against improper use of third party tools and periodic progress updates to the ICO. The Met said stricter controls and a pilot scheme allowed officers in 14 London boroughs to use Auror again, and that the platform had quadrupled positive outcomes for shoplifting. It also said shoplifting reported through the platform resulted in a positive outcome in 29.4 percent of cases.

Sources: The Register