Re: PC WORLD

In article <43BA3906.1010103@...>, Peter Tomlinson 
<pwt@...> writes
>But when there isn't a legal requirement to report, a shop collecting 
>any personal details needs to have a good reason to do that, and has to 
>tell you what they will use the information for (Data Protection rules),

Yes, various shops, utility companies, and so on, often attempt to 
collect "excessive personal data" and/or fail to adequately inform you 
of the purposes they are collecting it for. One person's "essential 
information" to complete the transaction is another person's invasion of 
privacy [1]. It will take much more resistance from the general public 
before these people will change their practices.

>although, even when they advertise something for sale, they are quite 
>within their rights if they decide not to sell it to you (e.g. if you 
>refuse to give the personal details that they request, then they can 
>refuse to sell).
>
>If I remember correctly, it was the Tandy shops that long time ago 
>always collected names and addresses, but I never knew why.

That was in the days when they did loads of junk mail advertising, and 
they were clearly building a database.

[1] I recently bought some tickets for a sporting event, and the venue 
refused to sell them unless I gave a name and address. Their "excuse" 
was that they needed to be able to contact me if the event was 
cancelled. This despite it being the day before the event, and any 
letter they wrote me would therefore probably not arrive in time. The 
problem is, how much of one's already crowded life does one dedicate to 
escalating complaints about such things through a series of jobsworths? 
I was stood in a queue to pay for something yesterday (in a household 
name electronics shed, but not PC World) and the chap in front was 
making no progress trying to file a complaint with someone who protested 
that as they were only the *assistant* store manager the punter would 
have to come back tomorrow (ie today) and nothing else could apparently 
be done.
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-- 
Roland Perry