Confidentiality

[#1]

A few years ago we booked a holiday through a well known travel company. When giving my details I  clearly stated that these were not to be passed on to anyone else.
Yesterday I got an e-mail from this company to say a variety of savings could be made by booking early, the e-mail clearly showed the names of every person the e-mail had been copied too but my main concern was that  by opening anyone of these names their e-mail address was shown.
So 2 questions arise here, the first is have I anything to be concerned about as at least 200 more people have  access to my personal e- mail address and secondly based on my request that my details should not be passed on is this not a breach of confidentiality ?

[#2]

It seems like a breach of confidentiality. How did you make your request for confidentiality? Was it a tick box?

[#3]

Whenever I send multi-recipient emails I always send them B.c.c, perhaps your travel company should have done the same.
Is it a problem? not sure, certainly one of my recipients fires off annoyed mails to anyone who discloses his email address in such a way. He gets particularly stressed if any in a disclosed group are Hotmail addresses.

[#4]

You should contact them asap and make a complaint. This is in breach of your confidentiality.

[#5]

It may also potentially be in breach of the DATA Protection act 1998, as they could of sold / passed on your other details

[#6]

Quote from: artmo

It seems like a breach of confidentiality. How did you make your request for confidentiality? Was it a tick box?

No it was verbal in their office, swmbo was present.
Normally I would have used a email box that I use for junk mail and subscribing to things but as it was a holiday where you print off your own tickets and need other relevant information I used my main e-mail address.
I Have sent them an email and told them to delete every bit of information they have on me off their records as I will never book through them again.
Hopefully I will not need to change my email address as this would cause me a lot of hassle

[#7]

Complain in writing to the holiday company. Keep a record of any phone conversations concerning this matter. If you do not get a satisfactory reply refer the details as a complaint to the Information Commissioners office.

[#8]

In fact, in your next communication with the holiday company mention the ICO.
I eventually did this when having trouble getting a company to remove my details a couple of years ago. The next response I received was confirmation that all my details had been removed and the account I had with them was now fully closed. In the end I did not have to go to the ICO.

[#9]

Thanks for the responses.
So far I have had no reply to my complaint sent by email.
Not sure if  it's worth bothering with it any further, most I am likely to get is the usual standard apology, even a few vouchers  for the next holiday booked with them except I would have no intention of going through them again.
When we booked our last holiday with them I got an email asking me to go to their main site, enter my booking ref and print my tickets off however I was Passing their offices later that day so went in and asked them to print the tickets out  but for some reason they were unable to do so, not a problem as I printed them out myself at home but it got me thinking what are they doing  that I could not do myself ?

[#10]

The writing thing here is not the potential for loads of spam...but the potential for coming back from holiday to find your house burgled.
They have passed your details on, how do they have any control over the staff at other end, port Howe many they passed your details on to?
I would not book through them again and explain why in great detail to them.

[#11]

Chances are that whatever they are going to do with your email address has already been done. I think if they had a physical office, which they appear to have, I would call in and speak with them face-to-face.

[#12]

My point is..if you book a holiday through them out is likely they will tell their partners. Go somewhere else to be safe.

[#13]

Confidentiality means nothing to people these days. Just today we were exposed to someone elses details at the hospital.. yet use a camera to take a pic of something regarding your own health and suddenly confidentiality becomes a big issue - No sir you can't do that... 

[#14]

Quote from: gleneagles

Thanks for the responses. So far I have had no reply to my complaint sent by email. Not sure if  it's worth bothering with it any further, most I am likely to get is the usual standard apology, even a few vouchers  for the next holiday booked with them except I would have no intention of going through them again. When we booked our last holiday with them I got an email asking me to go to their main site, enter my booking ref and print my tickets off however I was Passing their offices later that day so went in and asked them to print the tickets out  but for some reason they were unable to do so, not a problem as I printed them out myself at home but it got me thinking what are they doing  that I could not do myself ?

forward the email you sent to the ICO casework@ico.org.uk and then follow up with any replies from the company, the point is not to get compo (although you might be entitled to it) but to highlight bad business practice get them slapped with a paltry fine and have other businesses alerted to the problem lowering the chances it will happen again.