So the other day I received a letter fully addressed to me. Opened it up, was a 'you have won' type thing from www.pieroth.com.au saying that by filling in a survey they would give me free whiskey tumblers and wines.
Turns out that to claim your prize you have to have the man come and let you taste his wines in your home and pressure you into buying some.

Now the funny thing is that I'm not on any marketing databases. This is the one and only marketing letter with my full name, address, and knowledge of my age. Wonder how they got my details?

Sent them a complaint/threat. Response below.

Dear David,
In response to your query, we received your address details from Acxiom, a third party data supplier.
Their contact details if you would like to follow up with them are:

Phone: 02 9032 3200
Email: consumercare@acxiom.com

Regards
------
Pieroth
Unit 14, 12 Mars Road
Lane Cove NSW 2066

Hmm turns out acxiom is a big nasty, a shadowy data mining company that collects info about everyone from everywhere (and won't explain where/how the data is collected)
theweek.com/articles/474509/acxiom-corp-faceless-organization-that-knows-everything-about

So I sent Acxiom a complaint/threat as before:
Hi,
I have recently been informed that my details have been sold to 3rd parties by your company.
I don't believe I am currently on any other promotional databases.
Please let me know:
1. Who provided my details to your company?
and
2. How to do got off your database?

I believe I have a right to both of these answers under Australian consumer law, and I will certainly be researching this area, and the appropriate forums to take further action and/or raise awareness, while waiting for you reply.

Finally after 3 reminders and waiting 2 months for me to forget about it, they came back with this.

Dear Mr .-----
Sorry not to have got back to you earlier.
We sourced your information from following details
Originally sourced by historical issues of the QLD ER and also from National Change of Address details. NCOA:
As of the 26th August 2013 we have removed your name and address details form out marketing database .
Regards
Nicholas ----
Consumer Care

Now historical Electoral Rolls are available until 2004 - so only useful to check birthdate (no other details would be relevant for me, I've moved and changed all numbers heaps of times)

So the winner is...

-----> AUSTRALIA POST <-----

That's it folks, if you use Australia Post's mail redirection service, they'll sell you onto the country's biggest marketing database.

You have been warned.