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back to article Glastonbury hippies force-fed spam

It seems that data protection and music festivals don't dance merrily off into the sunset together. Cries of "I didn't tick any box" have been flooding into Vulture Central with many readers telling us they had only registered for this year's Glastonbury festival via the official website. Despite this, lots of people still …

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  1. Ralph B

    The Straight Dope

    These people were likely too high to know if they ticked a box or not.

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  2. Mark Studden

    It's all gone, like, commercial, man.

    I remember years ago ringing up Worthy Farm to ask when the tickets would be on sale. Mrs. Eavis was pleasantness itself on the blower, and we chatted for a minute or so as if we were neighbours.

    I know darn well she didn't bash 1471 into the phone the minute I rang off, in order to make a note of my number for "Marketing" purposes.

    Sigh. It's all gone to pot now. The bread-heads have won.

    Bring back Dumpy's Rusty Nuts, Hawkwind, home made food stalls selling lentil soup of questionable providence and hygiene, and loos made of tin and plywood.

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  3. Carol-Anne Welsh

    Glaston-frenzy

    I was one of the sad hopefuls to spend 3 hours of my life clicking refresh in the vain hope of seeing the See Ticket https booking form.... I too received an email from the Mean Fiddler telling me "what I could still win" by going to their Latitude festival - which is like Glastonbury, but isn't. Anyway - I was annoyed that I received this spam but further worried that they knew that I had been unsuccesful in getting a ticket. How did they know that I sat like a dummy clicking refresh for 3 hours?

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  4. Les Matthew

    Hippies?

    Glastonbury festival has not been full of hippies for about two decades. At least when I was working there in 1989 it wasn't all hippies. (I was a tech with the company that supplied the P.A. system)

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  5. ian

    Can you publish the email address

    Of the database manager. Just in case WE want to send them emails, like. I've got some lovely viagra for sale...

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  6. Rob

    What's the real issue here?

    The real question is: Has the data protection act been breached?

    Irrespective of the context, this is a really serious matter. If it was ASDA or NatWest, the "moral majority" wouldn't be scoffing at the troubles of what they perceive as an underclass. It would be breakfast TV news.

    The complainants should make their cases individually through the publicly available legal channels, not whine about it on forums. (I accept that this may already be happening).

    If the organisers say that these people gave permission to pass on their details, they will have this information to hand in order to prove their innocence. Surely they would gladly divulge this information to any legal body that requested it?

    Refusing to even comment on the matter implies guilt, if you ask me. And having worked with people like this, I can tell you, they're usually more high than the punters.

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    TicketMaster is worse...

    I get spam from TicketMaster, having once bought tickets to a concert via their website, and made very sure to tick/untick all the relevant follow-up boxes (didn't some regulations make it mandatory to opt *IN* rather than out?)

    On the first bout of spam, I "unsubscribed" via the legitimate link to remove all communications. "Thanks" said the website, "sorry to see you go". Of course, that didn't stop the emails.

    Now I must "log in to my account" to attempt to remove myself again, but lo and behold the very same email address they are sending messages to "did not match any account in our records. Please check your entry and try again."

    Perhaps TicketMaster will one day send me an email promoting a performance of Joseph Heller's Catch-22...

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  8. Martin Benson

    You don't always have to tick a box....

    It's not always about ticking a box to get marketing information - it's often the case where you have to tick a box to say "Don't send me spam".

    In fact, it's got to the stage where I have to read the blurb very carefully to decide whether I need to tick. You get wonderful statements worded something like...

    "SuperHippy Festivals would like to share your information with carefully screened (yeah right!) partners. If you do not wish us to not share this data then please do not tick this box."

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  9. Mark Studden

    DPA? Far out.

    Rob,

    the REAL real question is:

    Does the Information Commissioner's Office have any proper sticks with which to beat those who have breached the DPA?

    And the answer is not in the affirmative.

    Which means the REAL REAL real question is: Why not?

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  10. fon

    only way to avoid spam...

    the only way to avoid spam, is NOT to use your normal email!!!

    use a webmail totally different, that can be ignored later if it gets too much spam...

    yahoo, hotmail, etc are good for this, if they are not used for 6 months or so, all the mail is deleted, and if you then return, it will be 're-activated' too, if you are lucky!

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  11. ian

    If it was a mistake...

    then why are See (UN)Tickets still sending emails to the addresses they gathered. I received one, to a unique address, this lunchtime.

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  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Coincidental wording

    If this was an accident, it looks very strange to see virtually identical words used by the festivals boss, Eavis, on their website. On the same day as the spam, it would appear to be at best insensitive to those who got an apology, and at worst something more cynical and blatently commercial.

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  13. David

    Well Eavis & the latitude message are the same

    And See tickets manages both their tickets. Maybe they just sent out the email from the wrong address?

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