On Feb 7, 11:37*am, MIG wrote:

On 7 Feb, 11:23, Mizter T wrote:

On Feb 7, 1:48*am, David Hansen
wrote:

On Sat, 6 Feb 2010 17:02:02 -0800 (PST) someone who may be Mizter T
wrote this:-

Of course you could just pay it

You are making the assumption that I don't pay the BBC tax.

and stop fighting the world. You don't
have to give them your real name, and they don't much care about it
either - it's the premises that are licensed after all.

Who said anything about my name? Not me.

I was being exceptionally dense and just thinking that the address of
the BBC licensing bods would be used to give them a piece of your
mind. Yes, I know it doesn't make any sense in the context of things -
apologies, yesterday had been a long day.

FWIW, given the keenness for retailers to put one onto their marketing
database, I can well understand wanting to sidestep this somehow. I
was in a supermarket recently where someone was buying a television,
and the guy was somewhat perturbed as the sales lady was completely
unable to give a reason for why she was asking for his address -
indeed I think there was something a bit more complex like the
television wasn't for his dwelling or some such.

On the face of it, their passing such details to the TV licensing
authorities would seem to be in breach of Data Protection if specific
permission hasn't been given and so on, but maybe it's one of those
"Secretary of State" requests that the TV licensing people can make of
retailers. *Can they require retailers to collect it in the first
place though?

The Telegraphy Act 1967 requires retailers to collect the address of
purchasers of television receiving equipment and pass it on to the
television licensing authority - under the law a sale cannot be
effected if this doesn't happen. My impression is that retailers don't
ask for specific permission to do so or explain the process or
requirement, but then, I haven't bought a television for quite a
while, and the last time I did I don't think they asked me anything.
BICBW.

What shouldn't happen is what I somewhat suspect does happen - i.e.
the requirement for the address as per the licensing law gets muddled
up with the marketing opportunity of getting the purchaser on the
retailer's database, IYSWIM. One should be able to opt out of the
latter if it exists, but if the retailer doesn't even understand
what's going on (see my supermarket example) then I'm not sure what
hope one has of doing that!