ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ

Is it possible to complain about hard copy spam, do you think? I have heard nothing from any representative of central government, or hopefuls, in years - suddenly I am apparently their best friend, and they are desperate for my ideas on how to run the country. At least if you believe the cod mail that's already started dropping through my letter box. Ah well, at least the Post Office will make a few bob... and my local council will inch closer to fulfilling its recycling commitments.

Well, it's nice to hear that the Information Commissioner is aware of the problem and has issued warnings to political parties about spamming their potential voters.

But it remains to be seen if this has any effect. Given the ICO's woefully inadequate record of enforcing the DPA, I'm not all that hopeful.

Of course, it would be nice to think that MPs would be governed by common sense, and common sense tells you that people don't like to be spammed. But then common sense also tells you that it's probably not a great idea to claim for a duck house on expenses.

Good to see that the ICO is on the ball this time. I will welcome communications via emails, but we don't want to be deluged with pointless rubbish.
I do use 'Write to Them' ( as a fast way to communicate with my MP and I am guaranteed that I get a very quick reply; which I did today to a question about the Digital Economy Bill which I sent yesterday. Better than Royal mail I think!
It will be interesting when the date is announced just how much email we do get from the parties.

If the parties publicised a facebook group each that we had to apply to join, or had a free election group that people joined on facebook or another social networking site then that's fine, but using pre-obtained email addresses evermore is spamming. Its the same as a shop using your email address to send promotional articles without giving the "click here if you don't want to receive them" check box.

I don't see how they can reach out to a disinterested and disillusioned public without us actually wanting to hear what they have to say.

Adverts on social networking sites and popular search engines would be the only way to use the internet in an unsolicited fashion without targeting individuals.

Forget spam from the political parties, my spam filter will sort that out. I would like to know why the DVLA isnt covered by the data protection act. I thought it was illegal to pass on your details to third parties without your express consent, yet any firm in the country can get access to your details by paying a small fee. Is this not directly prohibited under the data protection act, or did my college tutor and edecel examiner get it wrong.

Well this is a kettle of spam!
I wonder how many convoluted ways candidates can claim β€œprior consent”, and is anyone really going to punish those who don't bother with prior consent.
I mean do we expect the guilty just to admit guilt, and maybe pay a fine?
And if the person doesn’t just make his mea culpa – oh the costs of gathering evidence and going to Court!
Only once in my lifetime did a politician come to my door and talk to me about issues. I was so impressed that I voted for him, and something else: This chap did win in my riding.

Rory,
How is it that we're allowed to be spammed via snail-mail and not through email? If anything, spam through your letter box is far more annoying than email spam, because it demands some sort of physical bother. Yes, there is a way to opt-out of Royal Mail junk mail, if you can find the link on their website. And how many people actually know about opting out? Remember the case of that postman who was disciplined by Royal Mail for advising people on how to opt-out? Spare a thought for the aged who are suffering in silence out there. Why not have an opt-in system as opposed to opt-out-if-you-can?
Anyway, the flip side of email spam from MPs is that people like me actually want to hear from my MP, so that I know their email address for me to ask them a few pertinent questions; like "So you're my MP; where where they've been all this time?"

They will use an "outside" organization, say friendly to the candidate. The candidate or party will express concern and say they did not approve of the SPAM methods, but it will have already been done. These are politicians not anyone with integrity or character and certainly not shame.

Where does one start with the email address transgressions of my local Labour Party?

1) The current Labour MP is standing down. The heir-apparent spammed her election preamble to three of my "use once" email addresses - which they had assured me previously had finally been removed from their list. Posting a complaint on her website mandated an email address. However the "do not spam me" opt-out had no "untick box" - but required a snailmail to the Area Labour Party Headquarters.

2) The local Labour Party has a crusade against the Tory County Council over the state of local roads. Being a good citizen I went to the Labour website and suggested they survey a new traffic calming system's possible "unintended consequences". As always I ticked the "do NOT contact me" box. To my horror by return I received an email confirmation about my "complaint" - from the County Highways Department. The Labour office had edited my comments about the road - and forged at least my name and email address on the County Council's website "road damage report" form. They even sent me a letter a few days later trumpeting the referal - without mentioning the extent of their editing and forgery.

3) The Labour Party website only had a snailmail address for contacting their Data Protection Officer.

Either they are incompetent or worse....

Well, at least the paper spam that's been coming through the door recently from "Non-Doms-R-Us" has been recycled as phone message pads, being delightfully blank on one side. Very useful.
The first party to spam our e-mail will be referred to the Commissioner.

As with another poster on this blog, I've not seen a politician in the flesh since 1979. The flyers for maintaining the quota for the green box come through the letter box fairly regularly and just lately, I've discovered parties I'd never heard of before. I can only guess there must be some sort of event going on. As for political spam arriving in my inbox, I'm almost disappointed by the lack of it, despite the fact that I emailed my MP over a month ago and now disheartened by his inabilty to reply. Still, perhaps that's a good thing - it might just decide where my X goes later. But there's still time for a shed load of Data-Protection-ignored spam to hit my system. They have this list you know...

#7 The Royal Mail opt out is relatively easy to find, and for those who can't be bothered to search it's here . However, it says "Election material is not delivered by the Door to Door service and is therefore not affected by this opt out." so sadly there seems to be no way to stop party political snail mail from cluttering up your letterbox at election time.

Apologies for the broken link in my post #12, you can find the page by entering "opt-out" in the search box on the Royal Mail home page and selecting the topic titled "Controlling your mail".