I know who this organisation is and I receive contact under the very same conditions. I have, up to know, not done anything much, but feel I must stand up and be counted and say that what is written below is not an isolated incident. I won’t name and shame at this point, suffice to say that the person that dispenses advice only seems to do so just before they place an “ad” on the list for their services.

 

I too am a consultant in information privacy and data protection with public sector clients all over the country, but I would never overtly advertise on here as I believe it devalues the list. I have on occasion contacted members off list with a note that “I am here”, but that is all (as far as I recall). My organisation also provides courses etc., I wonder if the list would be OK with many private organisations advertising on this list? I for one find the list incredibly useful and informative and I would hate for one rogue outfit to have all non-education organisations banned from this list, not least because they have blatantly run roughshod over what they are supposedly experts in! Do people really want to deal with such organisations, I wonder?

 

Can we just stop “overt” advertising, or if it is deemed useful how about inviting “us that would like to offer services” the opportunity to do so on maybe one day a month, so at least people are expecting it and take action accordingly? Just a thought.

 

Simon Howarth.

 

 

As a moderator of this list I received a long email today form a list member.  The nub is this paragraph:

"I recently starting receiving unsolicited e-mails from a company claiming to provide DP information, but also advertising a large number of their courses.  I have a copy of the e-mail correspondence if required.  After some effort and repeated e-mails, the company concerned finally admitted that I had not, as they said invited this contact, nor had my PA (I wish) given consent when they rang.  They put me on their mailing list because one of their "colleagues" had "helped me" with a DP question and had therefore deemed it appropriate to add me to their mailing list."

There is no valid argument for behaving in this manner.  If a company is a purveyor of course we have already agreed that the list may be used to make one simple clean advertisement.  We ran a poll on this some time ago, and the results may be inspected on the JISCMail site.

I am firing this general shot across the bows of this organisation via the individual who is a member here.  Membership of this list is a privilege normally extended to all, not a right.  It would be a shame if we degenerated into a closely moderated mailing list.

I am seriously tempted to ask my correspondent to name and shame the organisation concerned.

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