In 2011 I received a gorgeous CD through the mail from a school. It invited me to send my children (at the time aged 30, 29 and 25) to their school (35 miles away from my house). Read the full story on Act Now website ( a Northern school). I did complain to the ICO but his decision was in favour of the school. This was my conclusion to the affair.
“A school/college with no prior relationship with me buys my name from a list broker as I am apparently rich and with junior age children (wrong on both counts) and then sends me unsolicited marketing material through the post. When I exercise my right to subject access they ignore it for two and a half weeks then fail to give me what I ask for because they don’t know from where they obtained my personal data.
The ICO when asked to look into the case decides the college did nothing wrong.
Moral – keep bad records, mail who you like even those with no relevance to your product, fail to respond to individuals exercising their right to access promptly and you’ll be fine rather than fined. “
I put it down to experience never expecting to hear from the school again but today they emailed me. Despite me reporting them to the ICO and an investigation taking place and their promise to delete my name and address from their database they emailed me with an offer I couldn’t refuse.
I will complain again. This time I have PECR on my side as they have strayed into electronic marketing as well as basic section 11 stuff. The school is also now a serial offender. Will the ICO listen, take action or will I get a similar response 5 months after I complain. See you around Xmas time.
It’s time to name and shame Queen Ethelburgas. Look out for the information notice.
It gets worse. I chose to report the message as spam as they invited me to. Here’s the screenshot of their procedure. Only a few errors in spelling and punctuation.
