[Hampshire] Unscrupulous ISPs

Hi all

I'll keep this brief. Is it me or are there certain ISPs out there that basically sell / distribute your email address unscrupulously the moment you sign up? This has been my experience with Orange (who I'm in the process of leaving) - much more so than any of the other ISPs I use / have used?

One other thought - how safe is your email address if you join a mailing list? Most of the ones I join are (one would hope) run by trustworthy folks (most are GNU or Linux) but before I commit my new ISP email account to joining a mailing list, I'd like to make sure I'm not making an obvious mistake.

Cheers
Rob