Is this a data protection breach? WWYD?

[KBabs]

hi there, my partner & I are joint members of a small local charity Historic garden group, which has around 100 people on their "books" in our city. We've been members of this group for around 5 years.

In the last few months, another person who is also a member of this charity turned up at my house, unsolicited and not for any specific charity related business, he just mentioned that he had recently moved to the area. Neither of us has given him our address details.

This person is rather 'creepy' and I feel uncomfortable being with him on my own. Apparently he has also turned up at a couple of other women's houses, uninvited. I am unsure if he got their details or whether he knew where they lived already.

I decided to challenge this person about how he knew where we lived (after checking with my partner who was equally surprised at him 'tipping up' at our doorstep). He informed me that one of the charity committee members had given him my address from the charity member records and given it to him. He (and clearly the guy who gave him our details) did not appear to think there was anything wrong with this....

Any suggestions about how I can raise this so that my complaint is not minimised? I understand the committee member might have thought they were being friendly/helpful in providing the information but I feel like my privacy has been sacrificed at the expense of someone wanting new contacts/anothers negligence.

This is a very small charity there are no employed staff, all roles are held by volunteers. Trustee, committee members related training appears to be absent.

What would you do?

This is probably a Data Protection issue - the Data Protection Act applies to 'personal data' that' identifies an individual' - address is included in this. It applies to paper records as well as electronic, and charities have to abide by it too.

Have a look here (not the easiest site to get around) - about how to raise a concern: ico.org.uk/for-the-public/raising-concerns/

Can't undo the problem for you, though. The most you could do is complain to them, but what would you want the outcome to be - tighten up their procedures for the future, perhaps? If they don't take you seriously, you can report them to the ICO, who will follow it up officially which will probably scare the shit out of them .

thanks for this CrabbyOldBat, I will take a look and think about how I might be able to broach this in the first instance to the charity chairperson, as a first port of call. I shall also ask around the other people where I've heard he has turned up at their place unsolicited....

Sadly, the horse has bolted (so to speak) in the fact that the person concerned now knows where I live and has come around to my house 3 times now. If it continues I may raise it with him again (as I am not keen on socialising with this person and fortunately, I've not been in the last 2 times he has called at the house).