A few days ago I sent a GDPR request to some company to delete my personal data. They said to install their app and send a ticket from the app. The email was sent from the email address to which the account is registered. Is this even legal?
No, it’s not at all legal for the company to do this. Reply and remind them they have one calendar month to comply from the date of your original request, otherwise you will make a complaint to which ever information regulator is correct for the juridiction they’re operating in.
I’m a lawyer specialising in Data Privacy, reply here if you need more help on this one.
Also feel free to name the company.
Fuck them and bless u lol
That reminds me, I might have to put in a formal complaint for a somewhat similar matter.
Bought concert cards years ago, and was never able to unsubsribe from the newsletter. I sent requests to every mail address I could find, and never even got a response. Still got newsletters every now and then though.
They also just make it unnecessarily hard to contact them, so at this point I’m not sure my messages even reached them, which hopefully is what explains their failure to comply.
For now, I do not want to announce the name of this company publicly.
If they don’t want to solve it amicably, then I will do so.
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Why not? That’s so weird…
Think of the poor corporation! If they get punished for their illegal buisness practices, it’ll hurt the economy and people will be less inclined to start a small buisness. Didn’t you study piss down economics?
“WHAT ABOUT THE TRUE VICTIMS HERE! WHY DOESN’T ANYONE CARE ABOUT THOSE HARDWORKING, SALT-OF-THE-EARTH SHAREHOLDERS! ARE YOU PEOPLE FUCKING COMMUNISTS?!”
Hahaha
I guess the company is embarrassing in some way.
I will never understand why people complain online then do this. Why are you being such a pushover. What does amicably even mean to you?
Feetfinders.com? Heh
They already said they don’t want to.
They asked you to install the app on purpose, in hopes that you’ll decide it’s too much hassle and decide not to delete the account.
How do you know this?
My first thought was “they probably want to ensure they are who they say they are and so want an authenticated request” - while that’s against GDPR, not everyone is as educated as they should be, and not every mistake is a nefarious activity.
There’s no reason an app should be more trustworthy than the email.
It’s pretty standard for scummy companies to make the process as annoying as possible.See cancelling gym membership.
The individual responding isn’t the issue. They haven’t made any decision to respond like this, they are following a script.
The script is written by people who should know exactly what they are doing, so the result is either malice or negligence. Either way it’s unacceptable where the law is concerned.
This is a bad decision, IMO. They may fix it for you, but then you’ve lost the opportunity to assist everyone who comes after you.
You posted asking the public for help. Please return the favor and report them, as you are legally supposed to do.
Must be something that makes you look bad lol
Otherwise you’d just say it. You owe them nothing and they’ve broken the fuckin law and you’re protecting them? What do they have on you?
Or maybe they just want to disclose as little of their personal information, including services relied on, on an open platform like this. Idk if that’s the case, but playing devil’s advocate here
Personal information like the name of a company they bought something from?
Please
Maybe it’s a company with only 3 customers.
Then maybe don’t post it at all?
Why should they not? They posted an inquiry, looking for advice. That is their reason for posting.
They do not owe personal information beyond what is required to answer the question. And typically, with regards to anything resembling a legal matter, the less information posted publicly, the better.
Genuine question: Aren’t you supposed to say “this is not legal advice?” if you identify yourself as a lawyer but you’re not their legal council? Or am I mistaken?
Nope.
Look it is the internet, you can rest assured if they say they are a lawyer, then there is no doubt ;)
And I’m totally not a dog. Woof!
That one is certainly illegal, misrepresenting yourself as a lawyer online and giving legal advice on that basis. Same for doctors.
I can’t decide if this is written jokingly or seriously.
Illegal where?
Canada, USA, the EU
And you are certain the poster aboves lives there because…?
“because…?” ?
expired
Man, Elon really does ruin everything. Can’t even use X as a variable anymore without a disclaimer.
An X is an X, the social network shall be known as X, formerly Twitter /J
It’s causing hell of problems to mathematicians worldwide.
Suddenly, every math formula ever written is subject to copyright and royalties.
It is an ex-social-platform. It is now a pile of garbage.
This is why I always call it twitter. X is a variable
It’s new name is “X, formally known as Twitter”. Which is what every news website on the planet calls it.
Regardless the fact that X is a stupid name for a company, it’s also dumb to rename a popular company generally anyway.
GDPR clearly states you can contact any part of the organisation with your request. You can make your request verbally or in writing and they must acknowledge it. They can’t refuse and make you use their app.
For fun send them a Subject Access Request and if they don’t acknowledge it, report them to the ICO (if you’re in the UK)
Name & shame.
I had this before, though not through a direct communication. Someone had gotten my email credentials somehow and installed a company’s app and made an account. When I went through the support pages on the company’s site to find out how to delete the account the only listed way was through the app itself.
They were accommodating and helpful when I emailed the company about it though. I just told them that I can’t agree to the privacy policy and thus cannot install the app but still need the account to be deleted. They did it.
Simply ask for the official company name, registration number and country as well as the prereree means of communication that they would like your local data authorities to contact them on.
Also make a 1 star review, stating that you are in talks with your local gdpr authorities about their way of handling privacy.
This worked for me last time a company asked me to download an app to delete my account
prereree -> preferred?
It is absolutely not
I had a simmilar situation with Nicehash (crypto shit company), but I had 2fa enabled and just wanted to unsubscribe from useless newsletters. They asked for a photo of me holding a paper with my personal information. Still didnt solve that, but some comments here might help, following
Name and shame the company
Then you, kindly dispose urself of all my personal data.
—Dictated but not read, fuck you Me(also take me to ur leader)
I don’t know, maybe? If they have a process, no matter how laborious and roundabout, they can always claim that they have a process and that you have nothing to complain about, legally speaking. Their wagering that people will not go through all the bullshit, and they’re unfortunately right. That’s literally why they do it. The only correct response is to hound them relentlessly, going to Twitter (or something else idk these days, and I’m not calling it X), the press if necessary, and pestering as many government bodies and officials as you have to in order to make them get their fucking shit together. And then they’ll make your particular situation of priority because now you’re being more of a pain in the ass than actually doing their job is. They won’t change the broken system, because one exception in a thousand isn’t worth it to them to be bothered with.
Tldr, maybe but it probably won’t help you, so make it as big of a headache for them as possible.
They don’t get to make it harder to cancel than to sign up
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It’s way too easy to spoof email “from” addresses.
There should be a way to do it through their website though. Requiring an app is just stupid.
Their site is just a landing page, there’s no login option or anything like that. Their business is a smartphone application.
Edit: Gmail uses SPF, DMARC and DKIM signing so spoofing is not possible if their email services are configured properly.
SPF/DKIM/DMARC does not prevent sending the spoofed message, though. It is up to the recipient system to filter out the message should the checks fail. Even then, the message often lands into spam instead of being dropped.
Anyway they should configure their systems to reject unsigned e-mails and providers that don’t have a proper SPF configuration. SPF (Sender Policy Framework) allows you to make sure that the message was sent by an approved server and was not forged by some hackur.
You’d be surprised how many legitimate email are sent with failed SPF. Even Microsoft sometimes doesn’t update their MX records and the SPF fails.
That is especially true with large organizations where multiple non-technical teams are ordering/configuring products that send email.
Unfortunately it is difficult to solve, unless services stop allowing sending without verifying and forcing proper configuration. That would drive sales to competitors who do not enforce this, though.
They were very friendly imo. No need to speak legalese or to be rude.
Just tell them that you can’t or don’t want to install the app.
If they don’t help you, then you proceed to remind them that you are not required to install anything for them to comply with GDPR.
Being friendly doesn’t negate the fact that they are out of compliance with the law. Even sending a second email to insist they delete your data is an undue burden.
You’re right, but sometimes a bit of undue courtesy repays in dividends. Not every minor infraction is nefarious and not every minor infraction deserves reporting. A simple courteous reminder of their obligations may save both parties some undue hassle.
I can imagine this company doing this to ensure only authenticated users can have their data removed. There are other ways…but this was probably what they considered reasonable and painless for all, admittedly they (wrongly) didn’t consider the audience of this community in that decision.
A simple courteous reminder of their obligations may save both parties some undue hassle.
Actually, the customer is already getting undue hassle, while the company is just breaking the law. Why can’t we just expect better?
Nobody broke the law lol.
I believe they have like a month to comply.
The just asked for a ticket in the app, to make their lifes easier. If OP doesn’t want to, they still have to comply though.
Now I remember why I hate working directly with customers.
I believe they have like a month to comply.
According to my training when I was handling my workplace’s GDPR request email companies have 30 days to respond. Meaning they could simply have a bot respond to all incoming emails on day 29 and say “we’re reviewing your request” and be in compliance for a while longer
Use this template in chat gpt…
Can you write an official letter for removal of my private data for (company name) and (my name). Use a strong tone and legalese langage. Make sure you verify the timeframe they must respond (act with 30 days of this letter) and any other specific to make sure they know what my rights are and that I am serious. List the typical types of data they might have on me. And write in a 1800L lexile scale.
I’m sorry but you live in another universe from not finding this the perfect letter.
From chat gpt
[Your Name] [Your Address] [City, State, Zip] [Email Address] [Phone Number] [Date]
[Recipient Name] [Company Name] [Company Address] [City, State, Zip]
Subject: Formal Request for Immediate Erasure of Personal Data
Dear [Recipient Name],
I am writing to formally request the immediate erasure of all personal data pertaining to myself, [Your Name], from your systems in accordance with Article 17 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This entails the deletion of my data from your databases and any other processing systems within your organization.
The categories of data I am referring to include, but are not limited to:
- Personal identification information (name, address, email, phone number)
- Professional data (job title, employer, professional contacts)
- Financial data (bank account details, transaction history)
- Technical data (IP addresses, cookie data, browsing history)
- Any other category of data related to me.
You are hereby instructed to ensure this erasure without undue delay and, in any event, within thirty (30) days of receipt of this letter. Failure to comply within this timeframe will compel me to take further legal action to enforce my rights under the GDPR.
I further request that you provide written confirmation upon successful deletion of my data, indicating that no personal data pertaining to me remains in your possession, custody or control.
In the event that you require any additional information to comply with this request, you may contact me via email or phone, as provided above.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this serious matter.
Sincerely,
[Your Signature (if sending a hard copy)] [Your Name (printed)]
Catch 22: give ChatGPT your data, then try to delete your ChatGPT account using ChatGPT
You can ask the text without name and write it after… I mean really? Search on hugging face for free LLM (that’s the kind of ai of chat gpt) and try it for free without registration there is that’s suuuch a thing
Oh I was just joking :)
How are you going to speak to it without revealing any information though? It now knows you need legal advice.
Don’t do this.
Why?
chatgpt is not a lawer
