"Mrs Pumpkin"

Mrs Pumpkin "makes pennies work when she shops, mostly uses cash, has a steady repertoire of products but experiments with the new, shops at various times, spends a little more on eco-friendly items, is involved with charitable giving, is rarely away and likes promotions for things she buys".

This is the sort of profile quietly being built of UK citizens - a map of personality, travel habits, shopping preferences and even how charitable and eco-friendly you are. It's all in a new database called Crucible and its information is sold for marketing purposes - but you can't see it, because the information is classed in a way that circumvents disclosure provisions in the Data Protection Act.

It's not right, is it?

We ought to speak to our politicians about this, but the Government's record on freedom of information hardly qualifies them as champions in our cause.

More on Crucible.
More on Freedom of Information.