Staples...............Help

polly453

Can someone tell me what I need to do to protect myself.
Last night Staples sent out an email to myself and at least 30 other people with all the email addresses it had been sent to on display.
I know this is a This is a violation of the data protection act', but what do I do now?
I hope this makes sense, its something to do with the CC in the email.

Butlers1982

You need to contact Staples.
If you want to take it further you need to contact the information comissioner, but you have to contact staples first to ask for an explanation.

With reference to protecting yourself, its only an email address, they dont have any information about you directly.

MothballsWallet

polly453 wrote: »

Can someone tell me what I need to do to protect myself.
Last night Staples sent out an email to myself and at least 30 other people with all the email addresses it had been sent to on display.
I know this is a This is a violation of the data protection act', but what do I do now?
I hope this makes sense, its something to do with the CC in the email.

When you say the email addresses are "on display", what do you mean? Where they in the "To" or "CC" fields?

The best way to prevent everyone seeing who else got the same email is to use "BCC" (Blind Carbon Copy) instead of "CC" - that way, each recipient sees their email address but not everyone else's.

I don't know if it's a breach of the DPA, as the email standards (SMTP) pre-date the legislation by something like 20-30 years, and this may be more of a mistake in usage or set up of their customer email system.

The main internet protocols started as a US Military project to develop a resilient networkwith the ability to re-route data in order to connect their bases with the Pentagon and President in case a nuclear strike took out part of the system.

Email was added later when the system was opened up into military and civilian systems, and then made available to universities and companies for them to connect to it. (Look at Wikipedia or Google search for ARPAnet.)

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than I, such as BexTech or BritBrat, will be along to correct me if I've got anything wrong here .

custardy

maybe use disposable emails like

http://email.about.com/od/disposableemailservices/gr/gishpuppy.htm

stugib

polly453 wrote: »

I know this is a This is a violation of the data protection act', but what do I do now?

I'm fairly certain it isn't.

daveboy

stugib wrote: »

I'm fairly certain it isn't.

I'm fairly certain this is yet another MSE user with plenty of time on their hands who loves to moan.

fudgeukraine

I reckon it was someone's mistake who prob thought it was quicker to send an e-mail with everyone in the CC field.

Personally the most I would do to pursue it is e-mail staples and tell them of the mistake so it doesn't happen again.

uktim29

polly453 wrote: »

Last night Staples sent out an email to myself and at least 30 other people with all the email addresses it had been sent to on display.
I know this is a This is a violation of the data protection act', but what do I do now?

Nice to see blame culture isn't dead!:rolleyes:

Also what on earth do you think is going to happen to you?

withabix

polly453 wrote: »

I know this is a This is a violation of the data protection act', but what do I do now?

Forget about it and move on?