The strange case of Argos and the detector van people

What companies do with your private data is an emotive subject. As technology leads to more organisations knowing more about you than ever before, controlling who has access to what information has become a big issue - one which the Information Commissioner's office is well aware of, and, broadly speaking, is doing a good job of policing.

Look no further than recent changes to the law which require all 'data controllers' to ask your permission to pass on your details to third parties. In the bad old days, it was assumed you had given this permission unless you specifically stated otherwise.

So in these more enlightened times, you can understand the surprise one silicon.com reader felt recently, having bought a TV from Argos.co.uk. He didn't check any tick boxes saying 'please do pass on my data to anyone you like'. But he soon received a letter from the TV licensing people telling him that he didn't have a licence even though he'd just ordered a new set. (We're not read by evil licence fee-dodgers, of course - the document was in his mother's name).

Argos had clearly passed on his details to TV Licensing without his permission. A data protection breach? Not so. The Information Commissioner's office told us this is allowed under the terms of the 1967 Wireless Telegraphy Act. The data protection act does not apply when it comes to buying a telly. (NB: TV Licensing only gets your name and address: your bank account details are perfectly safe).

Did you know that? A straw poll at silicon.com's offices suggest most people aren't aware that simply buying a TV gives the bloodhounds at TV Licensing a trail to follow.

But in these enlightened times, surely we should be aware of it? Which begs the question: whose job is it to educate us?

Not the Information Commissioner's office. It's nothing to do with them. The BBC? Maybe, although its interest is in getting hold of your cash. It's hardly going to spend time telling you all the ins and outs of its revenue collection process.

That leaves the retailers themselves. We think the responsibility lies squarely with them. How hard is it for an e-tailer to have a pop-up appear when you order a TV spelling things out? How hard is it for the person behind the till to tell you TV Licensing will be informed of your purchase? Not hard at all.

You might think this is a minor issue, and one which only concerns those who want to avoid paying their licence fees. But as we said, these are supposed to be enlightened times. Only if companies tell us EXACTLY what they're doing with our data will we trust them. And that's what the Data Protection Act is all about. OK, so it doesn't apply here but its spirit should be embraced wholeheartedly by every organisation at every opportunity.