I have just had a very weird correspondence with a web based business that I will not name! I subscribed, thinking it was of use to me. It wasn't, so I tried to unsubscribe. There was no obvious way so I emailed the "info@" email address (enclosing the auto-email confirming my subscription thus: "Please see the enclosed email. I see no way of unsubscribing, so please delete my data record in accordance with the UK Data protection Act 1998 " And I received the most extraordinary reply: "Hello Tim, I fail to understand why you register then decide within the space of 5 minutes to cancel the registration. The way you have worded your email sounds much like a threat. However, you may have failed to read our privacy policy. I have removed your details as requested. Something I have noticed though is that you have failed to request that your carefully worded email be deleted. Perhaps you should put a signature on the end to the effect of: This email is for immediate information only. Please read then feed the email to thin air, thus ensuring there is no trace of my conversation to you." I admit to astonishment, so I place it here as a case study in alienating customers. I will, of course, make a point of avoiding this organisation because of the overt hostility of their staff member! And I have emailed him and informed him that I am deleting him from the servers of http://partnermine.com, the business I own and was writing to him from, within the 21 days that I am required to do! Unsurprisingly I can find no trace of this organisation's notification under the DPA 1998! That seems to me like tempting providence, especially since they ask people online to subscribe to their site which is well positioned in sites of its class in search engines, and is UK based. Tim Trent - Consultant Direct: +44(0)1344 392644 Mobile:+44(0)7710 126618 email: [log in to unmask] <blocked::mailto:[log in to unmask]> Marketing Improvement Limited, Abbey House, Grenville Place, Bracknell, United Kingdom, RG12 1BP <blocked::http://www.marketingimprovement.com/> http://www.marketingimprovement.com Important: This mail contains proprietary information some or all of which may be legally privileged. It is for the intended recipient only. If an addressing or transmission error has misdirected this email, please notify the author by replying to this email. if you are not the intended recipient you must not use, disclose, distribute, copy, print or rely on this email. If you are not the named recipient please notify us immediately. This email and any attachment(s) are believed to be virus-free, but it is the responsibility of the recipient to make all the necessary virus checks. This email and any attachments to it are copyright of Marketing Improvement Limited unless otherwise stated. Their copying, transmission, reproduction in whole or in part may only be undertaken with the express permission, in writing, of Marketing Improvement Limited. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ All archives of messages are stored permanently and are available to the world wide web community at large at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/data-protection.html If you wish to leave this list please send the command leave data-protection to [log in to unmask] All user commands can be found at : - http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/help/commandref.htm Any queries about sending or receiving message please send to the list owner [log in to unmask] (all commands go to [log in to unmask] not the list please) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^