OK so I’ve been contacted by James with an explanation.
I never wrote my name in this post, and yet James contacted me directly to explain the situation, therefore it seems logical that James hasn’t been mass-spamming and in fact must have only written to a few people at most, since he was able to figure out who wrote this. So then I guess my initial response may have been a little harsh 
James has explained to me that due to our relationship at the other program, he felt it was OK to contact me now at the new program. I can understand that Point of View, to some extent… but I’m not sure I agree entirely, it’s not like we’re close friends I believe that Privacy Policies exist for a reason, and when I sign up with an affiliate program I have an expectation that affiliate managers won’t take my details with them when they leave to work for another company! Maybe my sense of ethics is too strong, maybe my expectation of spam and privacy policies actually being followed is too strict…
James, my response could have been avoided if you had just started your email with something like “As you may remember, we worked together over at ‘OLD PROGRAM’ and I hope you don’t mind me contacting you about the new program I’m working with.” In that case I would have immediately seen that it was not 100% spam, and would have known that the email was in fact in the shady gray area somewhere inbetween solicited and unsolicited (and therefore maybe tolerable!). Instead I just got a generic email, from a program that I’ve never heard of (and definitely haven’t agreed to receive emails from), and to a unique address that I’ve only ever used with one other program therefore I can see my details have been ‘compromised’.
OK well I think the situation has been explained and to some extent resolved. I will say that James was in fact helpful at the previous program…