I don't know if I'm doing the right thing posting this here... but I hope I'm forgiven if it's not!

When I joined FT I created a dedicated email address at one of my domains. This address is stored in my profile here, and receives Talkmail and the occasional message from a moderator, but it has never been used for anything else.

The FT Privacy Policy states that members' details are not passed on to third parties, and until this morning I never had any reason to doubt that FT adheres to this policy.

This morning my dedicated email address got spammed. It wasn't what I would call "criminal spam" - I wasn't being offered enhancement products, the spam hadn't been sent through a compromised server in China. It came from a travel company. But it was spam nevertheless. As they say in spam-fighting circles, spam isn't about conTent, it's about conSent. It seems that either someone has stolen addresses from FT's database, or FT has passed on my email address without my consent.

I am a little bit concerned...