This could potentially drive readers crazy

Ed Balls with his dance partner Katya Jones during a dress rehearsal for Strictly Come Dancing.
Do we have the Green party to thank for Ed Balls’ appearance on Strictly Come Dancing? Photograph: Guy Levy/BBC/PA

I am in my 80th year, and have never revealed any personal details on social media nor bought anything online, yet for the last 20 years have been inundated with advertising for arthritis cures, aids for bathing, shopping trolleys, wheelchairs, funeral arrangements, stairlifts, etc. So it isn’t just social media platforms that have been harvesting data (Report, 23 March).
Ann Dowling
Manchester

• In view of your splendid reporting on the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica abuse of privacy, why is the Guardian still using Facebook?
Mary Davies
Hinton, Dorset

• I agree that the Labour party should not target the seat of Caroline Lucas (Letters, 22 March). I am, however, still angry that the Green party put up a candidate in Ed Balls’ constituency in 2015: as a consequence, they let in the Tory. I suppose it meant we could watch Balls on Strictly Come Dancing.
Lesley Aers
Durham

• Please tell all reporters, writers, editors and subeditors to stop using the phrase “could potentially”; its continued use might push me over the edge!
David Reed
London

• As a teacher I received a sick note from a parent. After three attempts to spell diarrhoea (Letters, 23 March), she crossed them all out and wrote “dire rear”. How very apt.
Angus MacIntosh
Burley in Wharfedale, West Yorkshire

• Our Latin teacher taught us No Vile Aunts Go Down Alleys, which I remember more than the declensions it represents.
Felicity Manning
Richmond, North Yorkshire

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