Does anyone know about data protection law? I am on an email list for our hunt supporters club....purely so we know whats on & where etc. Somehow this list has been passed on (not sure yet if sold or just passed on as a favour) to a local restaurant & they are now sending us their summer newsletter!!!!! I find this very very irritating & intrusive as this is not why I gave the HSC my private email address & will be taking it up with both the restaurant & the HSC secretary tomorrow. meanwhile I thought I would find out about the legal aspects so I could look as if I know what I am talking about :)

If you collect personal data and you wish to pass it on to other 'people' you must give to data subjects the opportunity to opt out. This is normally done by giving a little box at the end of say an application form saying that you do not wish to have your information passed on to others. To be able to pass on data they may well also need to revise their data protection registration (if they have bothered to register at all!).

As far as I know, the law has been changed and now states that you must 'opt in' when signing documents etc.  You must tick the box to say you want to receive the mail or whatever it is.

Hmmm....not really applicable to this situation as it was simply a question of receiveng an email from a friend who said do you want to be included on our email list so you know whats beng organised & when etc. no form filling etc. etc.

My understanding is that they SHOULD still be registered, as even if it is not on computer they have a 'record' of supporters names and addresses that they use on a regular basis. They also have a resopnsibility to keep their records up to date and accurate.

As i am aware its upto the company who own the database to do as they wish with it - if you do not want your details passing on you must make this very clear to them when you agree to receive their mailings. This can be via a tick box or simply emailing them asking to be added to their mailing list but clearly stating that you do not give them permission to pass your email details on.

Alternatively, the company (if they are a nice one like mine) will already respect your privacy and not share or sell their database. If this ever changes, the company cannot sell/share the emails of people who signed up whilst that privacy policy was in place.

I very much doubt that there will be any comeback unless you were being bombarded with hundreds of spam emails as a direct result - instead a simple email with the heading 'remove' sent from that address should put an end to it, as they are obliged to remove you from their list.

You may find the Email preference service useful http://www.dmaconsumers.org/emps.html (sorry, don't know how to do hyperlinks on here) - any company wishing to send a mail shot to an email they bought or 'obtained' must legally check this list for your email or they can be fined.