We receive a number of complaints each year about ‘unsolicited’ ads received by email, text or mail. Even where you do supply contact details, you can always change your mind at a later date and inform that company that you don’t want to receive ads. However, this can be challenging when the company has passed on your details to third parties.

Unsolicited ads often referred to as “spam” can be annoying. Worse still these ads can be highly time consuming and inconvenient to stop. Of course direct marketing (advertising which is directed to particular individuals), be it through texts, emails, mailings etc. is perfectly legitimate. It only becomes a problem if the content of those ads is inappropriate, misleading or harmful or where a person has exercised their right not to receive it anymore but continues to do so.

A company may have obtained your details when you’re shopping online, and you’ve perhaps unknowingly ticked a box to say you’re happy for your information to be used for advertising purposes or be shared with a third party who may also direct ads at you. Perhaps you supplied your contact details when entering a competition or completing a survey. If you’re supplying contact details in these circumstances read the conditions of entry carefully in order to understand how your contact details may be used.

It’s a common practice for companies to store your information in order to target you with advertising material but there are strict rules in place to ensure they treat your information carefully and have your consent to use it.

In summary the Advertising Codes require that:

  • Advertisers mustn’t direct persistent and unwanted ads by telephone, fax, mail, e-mail or other remote media
  • Consumers have the right to have their personal information removed from advertising databases
  • Ads are suitable for those they target
  • The databases they store your personal information on are accurate and up-to-date and that any corrections are made within 60 days of your request.
  • Advertisers make clear that they’re collecting personal information about you
  • Advertisers don’t collect personal information from children under 12 for advertising purposes without first getting approval from the parent or guardian.

We help by contacting the companies responsible to have your details removed so that you no longer receive these ads. So if this is something you’ve had trouble with then get in touch here.

ASA action

Cryton Ltd t/a urquickcash.com (Nov 2013) - We told Cryton Ltd to ensure that appropriate consent had been given before sending, or employing others to send text message ads on their behalf and not to imply that they held personal information about recipients unless that was the case.

E-Smart Media Ltd (March 2013) - We told E-smart Media Ltd to ensure that, in future, when sending email ads, they could provide that they’d received consent from the recipient.

Clarity Leads Ltd (April 2013) -We told Clarity Leads Ltd to get consent from consumers before sending text messages in future. We also told them to ensure that future text messages included details of their identity.


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