We have been reviewing the implications of the Data Protection Act on email communications sent to Members by our Committee or by Group Leaders.
Where email addresses are disclosed in the "to" address field of an email, those addresses are visible to all recipients of that email. It is a contravention of this Act for such disclosure to be made unless the consent of the individuals concerned has been obtained prior to the inclusion of their email addresses in this fashion.
The Committee has accordingly advised Group Leaders that if such consent has not been obtained then round robin emails from them to their Group Members should be sent using the "Bcc" blind copy facility. Indeed we recommend the use of this facility as a general principle.