Donald Trump’s golf resort in Aberdeenshire has admitted it failed to comply with strict data protection laws after not registering with the UK’s privacy watchdog, the Guardian can reveal.

The Information Commissioner’s Office contacted staff at the £30m resort near Aberdeen, Scotland, after it confirmed it was not registered under the Data Protection Act despite operating an extensive CCTV system and handling data on thousands of golfers and guests, its staff and suppliers.

The resort insisted the failure was a “clerical error”, but the ICO is now being urged to launch a full investigation by residents, opposition politicians at Holyrood, and the film-maker Anthony Baxter, who directed You’ve Been Trumped. They claim Trump’s history of conflicts with his opponents raises misgivings about the resort’s failure to comply with the legal requirement to register.

The MSP Liam McArthur, justice spokesman for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said: “There is a strong case for the ICO to look into how the Trump organisation stored and used the data that it holds.

“This is an organisation which has been accused of bullying local people who disagree with it, and these substantive concerns cannot be brushed under the carpet. The Trump organisation failed to meet its data obligations for years. We need to know how data was collected, stored and used during this period.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The club house and course of Donald Trump’s Menie golf course. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/The Guardian

The property tycoon, running as the Republican candidate for US president, owns a boutique hotel at the resort, employs 95 people and has spent more than £30m on construction and golfing contractors building the course, its clubhouse and converting the hotel since he bought it in 2006.

Trump International Golf Course Scotland also says tens of thousands of people have played golf there since 2012, using its restaurant and club house. The company is seeking permission to build 850 homes and 1,900 holiday flats on the estate.

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The ICO, which can fine companies up to £500,000 for data protection breaches, told the Guardian last week it had no record of the resort being registered as a data holder. The only alternative route was to register through a third party, but it had no information that the company had done so.

Businesses that store or use confidential personal data, including bank records, credit card details and mobile phone numbers must register with the ICO, unless they qualify for an exemption.

“The Data Protection Act requires every organisation that processes personal information to register with the ICO, unless it is exempt. Failure to do so is a criminal offence,” the commissioner’s office said last week. “We’ll be writing to the company, asking it to clarify how it is registered.”

The ICO said on Thursday morning it had received a valid registration for Trump International Golf Course Scotland and was not minded to investigate further saying this would “not be proportionate”. Smaller companies have been prosecuted in the past for failing to register under the DPA.

The ICO said: “An organisation must still comply with the rest of the Data Protection Act. If people feel an organisation is not handling their information in line with the law, they can complain to the ICO, irrespective of whether that organisation is registered.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A CCTV camera at Donald Trump’s golf resort in Scotland points directly down a public access road, leading to the homes of two of his opponents. Photograph: Severin Carrell/The Guardian

The golf course also risks censure for failing to display prominent signs warning guests, golfers, staff and general public that CCTV cameras were in use – a requirement under the ICO’s code of conduct. “The public expect CCTV to be used responsibly with proper safeguards in place,” the ICO said last week.

The Guardian has identified nine visible CCTV cameras at the resort, including two recording the vehicles driving through its main entrance, three at the main club house and one recording outside the hotel. Of three cameras visible in its maintenance compound, one points directly at the access road to the home of David Milne, one of Trump’s fiercest critics, who lives in a former coastguard station overlooking the course, and his neighbour Susie Munro, another opponent. As of last week, there was no visible sign warning visitors that CCTV was being used.

Trump’s critics fear the resort could use its CCTV systems to track their and guests’ movements, even though Scotland’s robust right to roam law entitles the public have a legal right to walk across the resort. Trump’s staff vigorously denied using CCTV covertly.

In a statement responding to questions from the Guardian about its use of CCTV cameras and storage of confidential data, Trump International Golf Course Scotland said: “We take the security of our employees and guests’ personal data very seriously and comply with all aspects of the Data Protection Act. A clerical oversight has just been brought to our attention which is now being rectified.”



Asked about allegations that CCTV was used to track legitimate activity by the public on or next to the course, the company said: “As a public facility open to all, Trump International has CCTV cameras located at its entrance and around the public buildings within the estate, for the safety and security of its members, guests and staff.

“The company has no need for cameras outwith those areas and has never had any cause to supply CCTV footage in any criminal proceedings. No other CCTV activity has ever taken place in or around the Trump estate and the allegation of intrusive surveillance of neighbouring properties is unfounded and categorically untrue.”



Facebook Twitter Pinterest David Milne lives in an old coast guard station near Trump’s Aberdeenshire golf course. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/The Guardian

Milne and Baxter have demanded that the course release any data it holds on them, and protested about the company’s failure to register, despite buying the Menie estate 10 years ago and opening the 18-hole golf course in 2012.

Trump’s opponents and neighbours claim security staff or managers have repeatedly challenged them on the course, appearing close to where they are walking or monitoring them visiting neighbours next to the resort by driving close to its boundary.

Baxter was arrested with a colleague for breach of the peace next to Trump’s resort after staff accused them of filming without permission while they were making a documentary on the tycoon’s quest to build the resort. Their treatment by the police, including being thrown against a car, was featured in the film.

A rambler called Rohan Beyts, a retired social worker active in the Tripping Up Trump campaign group, was charged under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act for allegedly urinating in the dunes while she was out walking on the course with a fellow campaigner, Sue Edwards, in April.

Beyts was told by police that she had been filmed by Trump staff using their mobile phones ducking down behind a dune. As she and Edwards walked off the course, a photographer believed to work for a local paper jumped out of a car and photographed them.

Beyts said prosecutors advised her in a statutory warning letter that the unproven charges would be put on record. She has refused to admit the charges and challenged the decision to issue a warning letter. “I find it very uncomfortable,” she said last week. “We always thought we were being watched. When they were building the course, every time we set foot on it [there were] security guards there instantly.”

Milne said the resort’s failure to register under the DPA was “symptomatic of the [resort’s] entire approach to UK legislation”. It had repeatedly built on the course without getting planning permission, only applying after buildings, walls or two flagpoles were in place.

“An ICO investigation is required because of the track record of the organisation, because of the way it has harassed and attempted to intimidate both those who live on or near the estate and those who walk on to it,” Milne said. “The ICO needs to investigate because it has done so elsewhere, when similar things have happened. It should be one law for all.”

Baxter, who was not prosecuted for allegedly threatening Trump staff during his filming – a charge he disputed – said he had made a subject access request under the Data Protection Act asking for all the information the company holds on him.

“I have on a number of occasions filmed around and near the Trump links property and am concerned that my image may have been captured on numerous occasions and I am concerned also how these images are being stored and used,” he said.

