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Tuesday 13 April 2010

Gathering Information

Much heat has been generated recently about the potential origin of information used in political mailshots. Well, targeted mailshots happen in Crewe as well – the electronic variety, that is – so who’s involved?

By-election victor Edward Timpson has, apparently, been emailing “Election Bulletins” to anyone who has requested his help or intervention, and has left an email address with his office. Given that it’s looking to be a big ask for him to hang on to Crewe and Nantwich in the upcoming poll, it’s understandable that he will want to remind those voters of the event.

So is this a bad thing, or indeed is it proper? Well, I don’t have a problem with his office doing this: if any of his constituents have dropped in and volunteered an email address, then unless they forbid the local Tory party organisation from using it for mailshots come election time, there’s nothing improper in giving those constituents a gentle reminder.

And there may well be many other organisations out there that have accumulated email addresses over the years. Something to think about when you give that information to yet another online booking site, or other retailer, or, well, political party.

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