We sign a contract with our network operator because we want them to provide us with a mobile phone service.

We pay our money to use their network to make and receive calls, swap texts and, in many cases, access the internet.

But that’s not quite the end of it as far as our network operator is concerned.

Because, as you will realise when you read the small print of your TMobile contract, “until you object, we will use information you give us to provide you with information about goods and services offered by us and other organisations with which we have a business relationship.”

In practice that means anybody prepared to pay TMobile the price.

And, as TMobile go on to say, “we or they may contact you by email, telephone, or other online or interactive media.”

Admittedly TMobile do concede “if you would prefer not to receive such information, simply let us know at any time and we will stop sending it to you.” Unfortunately, precisely how you should let them know is not immediately apparent.

Nor is it just TMobile who require us to assent to receiving such unsolicited communications. 

O2 tell us in paragraph 13.4 of their Pay Monthly contract: “You also agree to the information described in paragraph 13.3 being used, analysed and assessed by us and the other parties identified in paragraph 13.3 and selected third parties for marketing purposes including amongst other things to identify and offer you by phone, post, the Network, your Mobile Phone, email, text (SMS), media messaging, automated dialling equipment or other means, any further products, services and offers which we think might interest you.”

Like TMobile, O2 clearly intend to reach us in every which way they can. Although hopefully we may be reassured to realise that, from the moment the contract is signed, they will know what further products, services and offers they think we will find of interest. Fortunately, they do tell us what we have to do to opt out.

The information O2 collects for such purposes for use by both themselves and others includes but is “not limited to phone numbers and/or email addresses of calls, texts, MMS, emails and other communications made and received by you and the date, duration, time and cost of such communications, (and) your searching, browsing history (including web sites you visit).”

The aforementioned paragraph 13.3 also makes interesting reading. It’s a bit of a legalistic mouthful, but it’s worth the effort.

“You authorise us to use and disclose, in the UK and abroad, information about you, your use of the Service including, but not limited to, phone numbers and/or email addresses of calls, texts and other communications (“Communications“) made and received by you and the date, duration, time and cost of such Communications, how you conduct your account and the location of your Mobile Phone for the purposes of operating your account and providing you with the Service, for credit control purposes, fraud and crime detection and prevention and the investigation and prevention of civil offences or as required for reasons of national security or under law to our associated companies, partners or agents, any telecommunications company, debt collection agency or credit reference agency and fraud prevention agency or governmental agency and other users of these agencies who may use this information for the same purpose as us.”

Reading that, and knowing the information O2 is able to provide, you wonder why Jackie Smith could have ever considered setting up her own communications database. But then, Ministers have never been slow to waste taxpayers’ money on unnecessary government IT projects.

Virgin Mobile are another who promise “to send you details of products, services and special offers that we think will be of interest to you” both from themselves and “other carefully selected companies”. But then they disingenuously add: “we hate junk mail as much as you do so it's up to you to decide whether or not you want to receive this information.”

You might question why, if they really hate junk mail so much and think you do as well, they fully intend to send it to you until such time as you tell them to stop.

Only a cynic would suggest that money is the reason you have to opt out, rather than being invited to opt in.

Similarly both Vodafone and 3 say, respectively, that they will “contact you with marketing messages where you have not objected” and “tell you about the products and special promotions of carefully selected partners (subject to your preferences) and allow you to receive advertising and marketing information from them.”

Only Tesco’s Mobile Pay Monthly Privacy Policy makes the categoric promise that “your information will never be released to companies outside the Tesco Group for their marketing purposes.”

Of course, that won’t stop Tesco themselves trying to sell you things until such time as you ask them not to, and they do have rather a lot they can sell you, but at least it’s preferable to being targeted by every proverbial Tom and Dick.

With our network operators unlikely to compensate us by sharing the money they earn by enabling junk marketeers to pitch us their propositions, they could at least ask for rather than assume they have our consent.

If nothing else, it would save us the trouble of having to opt out.