As the 762 people who have so far signed the e-petition on Brighton and Hove City Council’s website to save the Brighton History Centre have found, the council has now belatedly decided it wants you to supply an address before you can vote.

On the face of it, that seems reasonable enough. It’s a fair question whether the people voting on local issues are local or not. But what the request for your details does not make clear is who is behind the various e-petitions on the site and what will happen to the details you provide about yourself after you’ve voted.

Anyone who can claim to live, work or study in the city, it seems, can put up such a petition. But what you are not told when you register to support it is that your details will be handed over to the anonymous person or persons who instigated the petition.

It doesn’t warn you about this when you sign up. But buried in the guidance notes on e-petitions is the sentence: “Details of all signatories will be passed to the lead petitioner on the completion of the e-petition.”

It does not require a great deal of imagination to see how the e-mails, names and addresses of those who support various causes might be accumulated by those who vigorously oppose them. By putting up a suitably worded e-petition they can readily avail themselves of this free address-finder service provided by the Council.

It makes you wonder how confidential any other information you provide to the Council will be.

Robert Doe
Surrenden Crescent, Brighton