I wonder if anyone could advise on the following issue, which is probably as
relevant to the 1984 Act as to the 1998 one.
I look after a network of senior administrators in Europe. I keep a Directory
of institutional contacts not only for member institutions, but for all HEIs in
relevant countries. This has been in existence for some years.
Two questions arise:
1) Since the processing is not new, I suppose that the information
(circulated only to our official members) is ok in respect to those non-members
named. In fact, we obtain our information from national associations of heads
of administration, and I would have thought that this all counts as info
(phone/fax/email) being circulated among like-minded colleagues. (It's not
exactly public information, but it's not far off - a lot of it can be obtained
from the Web.)
2) More pressing is that we have been approached by a (very senior)
colleague who would like to use our mailing labels to advertise a publication
by another association with which he (or she!) is involved. This is another
"trade organisation", entirely concerned with HE. However, two days into new
DP regime, I find myself worrying about this as a form of direct marketing -
especially as the publisher has offered to pay for the service which we would
provide! (We would not pass on the information.) Does this sound like innocent
and useful networking among like-minded colleagues - or the subject of a valid
objection?
I presume that we could cover this by telling all members that "from time to
time we may circulate you with [stuff from] carefully selcted partners, blah",
but any advice would be welcome. Thanks,
Trevor Field
----------------------
Dr Trevor Field
Senior Assistant Secretary
University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen AB24 3FX
Tel: [+44] (0)1224 272077
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