Mr. Billy Hawkes:

The basic principle of data protection is that a company should only collect the minimum information it needs to deliver a service to a person. To take the example given by the Chairman, if he rings to look for spare parts, presumably the company needs his name and address and, depending on how he pays for them, his credit card details. That should be it. Companies should make it clear that if they want other information for marketing and so on, they must ask the customer whether it is okay to give the information. Responsible websites make this clear and there will be an asterisk beside the parts one has to fill in while the rest will be optional. That is what data protection law calls for.