Stall The Ball

 

 

Damien Mulley made a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner about Thinkhouse PR a while ago. He then published, on his blog, a copy of his complaint. This matter has been concluded by the Data Protection Commissioner in so far as they have declared the matter closed. The exact wording of the resolution I will make public once Damien has received an assurance from the Commissioners office that it is safe to do so.

The bizarre thing is that Google have removed all reference to the blog post from their cache. One can only assume that either Thinkhouse PR or some other person has requested that Google expunge their cache and related search for this term on mulley.net.

So Damien has asked bloggers to republish the original article in full on their sites. I have done so below.

In the ruling the Data Protection Commissioner refered to the fact that I did give Thinkhouse PR permission to mail a PR piece about Imagine Broadband to the Ireland Offline mail address. I did.

The Data Protection Commissioner also acknowledges that this did not constitute a general consent permitting Thinkhouse PR to send communications concerning unrelated products or services. It was not.

The rest of the ruling I have serious issues with but will hold my peace on it until the Data Protection Commissioner replies with a yay or nay on publishing the entire ruling in public.

Tom Raftery is puzzled that the Data Protection Commisioner apologised to Thinkhouse PR for having to follow up on the complaint.

On the Eirepreneur site "ps- the DAta Protection AGency has reverted to THPR on the matter to which you refer. THey have confirmed that no further action will be taken against THinkhouse. They also apologied for having to follow the complaint up."
That was a comment from Jane after James referred to the "some embarrassingly negative Google juice (ie. third place for a search on Thinkhouse PR)."

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Damien’s original blog.

Open Letter to Thinkhouse PR - As promised

Hi everyone in Thinkhouse PR! As promised, here is my formal complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner for being repeatedly spammed by you on behalf of your clients. Just so you know I’ve also, as promised, contacted Three, Imagine and Ben and Jerry’s Ireland and asked them to investigate why I am getting spams about their products from you.

I’m writing to make a formal complaint against Thinkhouse PR for continually sending unsolicited emails to one of my email accounts despite being asked not to. The email account in question is info [at] irelandoffline.org a part-time non-commercial voluntary group.
Enclosed are 5 sets of documents. Thinkhouse contacted info@irelandoffline.org (which is shared with a colleague John Timmons) initially on behalf of their client Imagine who were releasing a new broadband product. We did not ask to be put on further email distributions for Imagine or for anyone else.

Despite this, on Fri August 4th Jane McDonald from Thinkhouse sent an email promoting an initiative from Ben and Jerry’s. (See document No. 2) Ben and Jerry’s are a client of Thinkhouse. My reply to this unsolicited email is at the end of the document.

Jane McDonald replied to this (see document No. 3) and gave the excuse that there was some kind of slip and my email address was put into a personal circular. I would not consider it was a personal mail. Jane seems to suggest that Thinkhouse are aware of spamming laws.

On August 18th Thinkhouse PR sent me another mail, a press release for the mobile phone operator “3”. (See document no. 4. This document is the back and forth communication between myself and Thinkhouse PR.) At the top of the document is a communication from Jane McDonald telling me once again I’m off everyone’s list after I again requested it. Jane also admits to using my email address without permission to add me to their mailing lists.

On August 22nd (see document No. 5) Andrea Horan from Thinkhouse PR again sent me a PR, this time for another of their clients. This one for Moviestar.ie.

I wish for the Data Protection Commissioner to investigate this and carry out a prosecution if needs be. I am willing to travel to Dublin, I am willing to make a written statement and I am willing to testify in Court if the need arises. Thinkhouse PR is contravening the Irish Spam Legislation and it is totally disregarding my repeated requests to stop being sent information. I have also asked for my contact details to be removed from their systems and this has been disregarded too.

Please contact me on receipt of this complaint. Contact details are above.

Regards,

Damien Mulley