Q. A tiny point of scruple. Charles Glass recently sent
me an email inviting me to attend a concert given by his friend Oliver Gilmour. I was one of about 30 people bidden to attend the event and the co-recipients' addresses were all included in the cc list at the top of the invitation. This gave a salivating insight into Charles's social world and! took the opportunity of cashing in on it by copying these addresses into my personal contacts file. I am a journalist myself and felt these addresses might be useful at a later date. Did I do wrong?
Name and address withheld A. Both you and Charles did wrong. It is an American custom to give everybody your address and telephone number. From early times it was considered unsocial not to do so and goes along with the American habit of not having hedges around your garden, so that everyone can see into your house. But these are not English customs. Charles did wrong to assume that everyone in his tiny world of smarties was so interconnected that they would not mind their email addresses being passed on. It is a matter of viruses apart from anything else. You did wrong in copying down the addresses and must now delete them.
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