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Entry tags:
- curmudgeon,
- gym,
- running,
- spam
sometimes it seems like I'm just looking for something to complain about
Early last week I investigated the possiblity of joining a local gym. My main reasons for doing so are access to treadmills, so I'm not always running on the streets, and access to resistance machines, since the only weights I have myself are a set of dumbells and, well, my own bodyweight. Having been a gym member before I'm looking for somewhere that is on my commute, since otherwise I'll simply not bother going. And for preference it should be near my house so I can go there on weekends.
All of these criteria basically confined me to a single practical choice, that being Crunch Fitness in Dun Laoghaire. It's literally across the road from the DART station (my usual means of commuting), they've got a branch just down the street from my office in case I feel like a workout in town, and they're a 20-25 minute walk from my house. So on Tuesday I went in for a look around, for which they asked me to fill out a little card. Name, Address, contact number, the usual health questions. I got a quick tour of the place, after which my "guide" showed me the prices and asked if I wanted to sign up immediately. I declined, saying I was in the "shopping around" phase.
On Thursday I received an SMS from them urging me to join and including an opt-out which required me to send an SMS to a different number than the originating one. This, as it turns out, is a breach of our Data Protection Act as it applies to direct marketing (scroll down to the section on Electronic Mail, which covers SMS). It's a breach on two counts, in fact: they didn't tell me they wanted to use my details for spam (doesn't matter if this is a "well, duh" thing, it's still a requirement for them to make it explicit), and they didn't provide me with a cost-free opt-out mechanism.
So. Due to the aforementioned criteria, I've signed up with these guys anyway, despite the fact that I don't want to condone this sort of behaviour. To mitigate that, I've sent a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner, and will be informing the gym in writing that I'm forbidding them, as far as the Data Protection Acts will allow me, from using my data for anything other than recording that I'm a member. I guess we'll see if that triggers the "Terms & Conditions" bit about not engaging in legal activity against them...
All of these criteria basically confined me to a single practical choice, that being Crunch Fitness in Dun Laoghaire. It's literally across the road from the DART station (my usual means of commuting), they've got a branch just down the street from my office in case I feel like a workout in town, and they're a 20-25 minute walk from my house. So on Tuesday I went in for a look around, for which they asked me to fill out a little card. Name, Address, contact number, the usual health questions. I got a quick tour of the place, after which my "guide" showed me the prices and asked if I wanted to sign up immediately. I declined, saying I was in the "shopping around" phase.
On Thursday I received an SMS from them urging me to join and including an opt-out which required me to send an SMS to a different number than the originating one. This, as it turns out, is a breach of our Data Protection Act as it applies to direct marketing (scroll down to the section on Electronic Mail, which covers SMS). It's a breach on two counts, in fact: they didn't tell me they wanted to use my details for spam (doesn't matter if this is a "well, duh" thing, it's still a requirement for them to make it explicit), and they didn't provide me with a cost-free opt-out mechanism.
So. Due to the aforementioned criteria, I've signed up with these guys anyway, despite the fact that I don't want to condone this sort of behaviour. To mitigate that, I've sent a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner, and will be informing the gym in writing that I'm forbidding them, as far as the Data Protection Acts will allow me, from using my data for anything other than recording that I'm a member. I guess we'll see if that triggers the "Terms & Conditions" bit about not engaging in legal activity against them...