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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

School sending email that is unrelated to school business

28 replies

TreesAndFlowers · 19/07/2013 14:11

This has been bugging me for a little while, but thought I would check that I was NBU before moaning at the school.

DC?s school use ParentMail to send out communications via email. So generally it?s things like parents? evenings, school disco, not to park in front of local residents? drives etc. All perfectly acceptable.

However there seems to be a recent trend to use the service to send out emails for things that can only considered to be anything to do with the school in a very nebulous fashion.

The latest is a circular advising us where and when the local Slimming club meets ? yes, on one day they do meet in the school, but this feels very much like use of my personal details to spam me.

AIBU to think that school mail should be restricted to things that are directly related to school business or at least vaguely to do with something educational?

OP posts:

squeakytoy · 19/07/2013 14:14

If a meeting is held in the school, then surely it is relevant.. hardly spam.

MaxPepsi · 19/07/2013 14:18

But it's not Spam?

It's coming from a source you have allowed to email you. If they had given it out to the person running the SW class and they had emailed you then yes, complain.

I'm sure there are plenty of parents who like to know exactly what the school they send their kids to is being used for.

damned if they do, damned if they dont!

SavoyCabbage · 19/07/2013 14:25

I think it is spam. A slimming club is nothing to do with the education of your child. It's a business that meets in your school.

Our school hires its hall out for all sorts of stuff. I wouldn't want them telling me about it all.

starfishmummy · 19/07/2013 14:26

Yanbu. School have your email address for school purposes and this is not.

I presume Slimming World just rent a room from school and as such, although they meet there, are nothing to do with school and I would wonder why school were apparently advertising it.

I don't know how Parentmail works so would be seeking assurance that my email details had not been passed on.

Original poster

TreesAndFlowers · 19/07/2013 14:33

How on earth can anyone think this isn't spam? Granted, I might just about have been ok with a general circular telling me about all the external groups who make use of the school in the evenings - that would be information.

This is not that. It's the school sending me an advertising leaflet from an external organisation that happen to meet in the school hall (and pay the normal hire rate for external groups) on one day. It's not even a group that is relevant for primary age children.

OP posts:

MammaTJ · 19/07/2013 14:42

If this is all you have to worry you, even in your email in box, then you are doing well.

It probably is spam though.

greensmoothiegoddess · 19/07/2013 14:48

I can never understand people being so blase about their details being (mis)used in such a way. OP I'd be pretty annoyed.

kim147 · 19/07/2013 14:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

NorbertDentressangle · 19/07/2013 14:52

I guess it is spam but not worth getting your knickers in a twist over.

If, on the other hand, it was a text telling you how you can make your cock bigger, or how you can satisfy your partner all night long with just one pill then I would complain.

kim147 · 19/07/2013 14:52

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

JedwardScissorhands · 19/07/2013 14:52

It is a breach of data protection provisions. I would complain.

SarahAndFuck · 19/07/2013 14:55

How will the school benefit from this OP?

Are they being paid to send the email? Will they get more money from the slimming club if more people join as a result of their email?

prettybird · 19/07/2013 14:55

I'd be annoyed because if they continue to abuse misuse parental emails in this way, you might actually miss an important email from the school.

Parentmail (I thought) is supposed to be there for school ie educational business not for commercial mailings.

maddy68 · 19/07/2013 14:55

Its not a breach of data protection at all - it will come from the admin office as its a notice to parents of something that is happening in the school.
You could however write to the HT and tell them that you dont think this is an appropraite use of the email and I am sure they will think about it

CitrusSunshine · 19/07/2013 14:55

What MamaTJ said.

Sallyingforth · 19/07/2013 14:59

If it's coming directly from the school then I wuld tell them firmly not to bother you with advertising. Tell them that otherwise you will have to block their email which means they won't be able to contact you when it's actually necessary.
If it's coming from the slimming club, the school have broken the law by passing on your details - but it sounds as if that hasn't happened.

ParsingFancy · 19/07/2013 15:00

"Processing personal data for specified purposes (Principle 2)" from the Information Commissioner's Office.

That page and the links back to "legitimate basis for processing data" should give you what you need to talk to the school.

But yes, AFAICS school are in breach of the DPA. They collected your email address to contact you wrt your DC being at the school. They can't just change the purpose and start using your email address for advertising external groups.

Handing over your data would be worse, but the advertiser can't circumvent that by getting the database holder to spam on their behalf. Which is just as well, or everyone we handed contact info to, eg GP, could start spamming us on behalf of advertisers who paid them.

piprabbit · 19/07/2013 15:01

We get all sorts of adverts stuck in the school bags.
I wouldn't mind getting them via email - so long as my details were kept private by the school. Although it would be nice if they bundled all the ads and sent no more than one summary a week with a nice clear subject so I can ignore it if I want.

ParsingFancy · 19/07/2013 15:05

maddy, if it's a list of multiple different things happening in the school premises, it might be permissible (though I can't see why parents need to know the dates, if it's non-school-related activities and just people hiring the hall.)

A list of the slimming club's meetings at multiple venues, one of which is sometimes the school, would not be permissible under the DPA, IIUC.

Sallyingforth · 19/07/2013 15:10

It's very likely that the school is doing this to boost the numbers going to the slimming meetings in order to make them viable for the room rental.

But that's not your problem - if you don't want the emails you shouldn't be getting them and it's up to the school to sort it.

kim147 · 19/07/2013 15:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheFallenNinja · 19/07/2013 15:26

It's astonishing how precious we get about advertising.

In the scheme of things it doesn't seem a huge deal.

ParsingFancy · 19/07/2013 15:34

This thread is not a huge deal in the scheme of things.

Yet here people are, posting on it.

Talkinpeace · 19/07/2013 15:37

#firstworldproblem

Sallyingforth · 19/07/2013 15:39

People are posting because they see it as important, so you are speaking for yourself and not them.
My email inbox is a private facility that I use for business and personal communications. I don't want rubbish shoved in there without my permission, particularly if it's advertising masquerading as something I would actually want to read. So I have every sympathy for the OP.

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