If it's clearly declared when the person makes/updates their profile, then that /is/ consent. I agree that you probably need a mechanism to get consent from people who have already entered their details.

I don't think we disagree on how to do it.

I did some homework on it today. No immediate fix. I do agree that we should give people a choice. Dominic Cronin Strictly legal you are correct, however I am a long standing moderator of the LinkedIn group for Bits of Freedom (Dutch Digital Civil Rights) and it is widely accepted that you should only expose information about a person if there is consent.

Which privacy law is causing the problem? IANAL, but my understanding is that if the "personal details" are gathered with a clearly expressed purpose, and then used in accordance with that purpose, you are in compliance with the law. So if you collect details for a personal profile on a community site, all you need to do is say at the beginning that the information is intended as a publicly available profile. Or are there other concerns?

Thanks for following up on this, guys.