You've seen the ads of charities on television appealing for donations to help the victims of disasters overseas, so when they come knocking at your door it is really hard to say no.

On the face of it, making a donation to a charity should be simple enough. But it's not always the case. In this instance, the donor felt his right to privacy was at risk and the whole experience left a bad taste in his mouth:

The door knocker looked harmless enough, keenly offering two levels of donations to a well-known children's charity.

As a parent and former donor I told the guy I was interested, but had concerns about my privacy. He said the form I fill would be sent directly to the charity and no information would be retained by his company.

I started filling out the charity's application form but as I progressed I found the information being gathered was far too detailed, akin to applying for a bank loan - even your birthdate and photo indentification were required. (Fewer details are required when donating to this charity via the internet). I drew the line at providing personal indentification but the door-knocker was insistent.

Then he sprung another form at me, bearing the names of four separate marketing companies. Once again personal information was required and one had to agree to their waivers.

At this point I said: "sorry, no go, the information your require is too detailed and unnecessary." I said I was retaining the children's charity's form but the guy wanted it back. But I felt I had the right to retain it as it had my personal details.

I then called his company, explained my problem, and handed the phone over to the door knocker to speak with his management. They asked him to pass the phone straight back to me. He said he had no instructions to leave the forms but reluctantly left when I threatened to call the police.

When contacted, the head of the children's charity agreed that clients had the right to retain the form and apologised for the incident.

I asked the Mangere Citizens Advice Bureau what the rights of the donor were. A spokesperson said: "The company may have the right to take the form back as they need to keep a record, but you could delete all the information you wrote on it." They referred me to the Mangere Law Centre who in turn suggested I speak to their lawyer.

The lawyer was of the opinion that the company had no right to retain the form and said it could be a ploy to gather information.

He advised that migrants read the forms carefully, including the fine print before actually filling it out.

FREAKED OUT
Birkenhead, Auckland