I have come across a new thing on a local pre-election leaflet where the small print reads as follows: "The LibDems and their elected representatives may use the information you provide to contact you about issues you may find of interest. Some of these contacts may be automated. You can opt out of some or all contacts at any time by contacting us."
1. Only if I fail to tick/untick a box during a commercial exchange will I receive unsolicited mail. This does not apply here as the box is ticked/unticked by default. On what grounds are the LibnDems allowed to infer consent when none was openly requested or given and use me for their business aims, yet I have to phone, write or email [if I can] to stop them contacting me.
2. As to 'the information you provide' this is solicited by boxes headed "Three things you can do today": a) I can help the Libdems [but it includes a request for a postal vote], b) Can we help you? [but are actually asking for ideas, complaints and issues they should be well aware of after N years in office], c) Stuart's Challenge: Can you tell us where Stockport's Labour MP's office is [but this box functions to slime the opposition because the chap is their parliamentary candidate]. The abyssmally low cunning underpinning the exercise - Stuart's box is likely to net contacts disgruntled with Labour - is to me an example of rot in our democracy:
A voter who responds in good faith will be placed on their mailing list and mailed with information and claims they probably have little hope of verifying or substantiating. Leaflets function as trawler nets to draw in voters for grooming.
3. The conditional 'may' raises another issue: whatever they send may be of interest to me but it could be automatically sent and therefore have no bearing on my interest whatsoever. Political leaflets are deemed a media genre apart because, as is argued, the electorate need to be informed and politicians will be politicians.
But this scam is an example of the ills that arise from this 'Gentleman's Agreement' as a result of which misrepresentations, lies or mistakes cannot be challenged, reported or rectified. And something needs to be done about it.
