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?

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428 points
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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.

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38 points

Fuck them and bless u lol

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23 points
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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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168 points

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.

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-20 points

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.

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92 points
Removed by mod
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75 points

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.

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37 points

Why not? That’s so weird…

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72 points

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?

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0 points

I guess the company is embarrassing in some way.

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27 points

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?

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27 points

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

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20 points
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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?

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10 points
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13 points
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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.

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4 points

Depending on country there’s probably some regulator office which you can send a complaint to

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2 points

France in that case, so that would go to the CNIL. Though they want people to make an account to put in complaints online.

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7 points

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?

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27 points

Look it is the internet, you can rest assured if they say they are a lawyer, then there is no doubt ;)

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3 points

And I’m totally not a dog. Woof!

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1 point

That one is certainly illegal, misrepresenting yourself as a lawyer online and giving legal advice on that basis. Same for doctors.

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10 points

The purpose of that disclaimer is for the lawyer to not expose themselves to malpractice lawsuits from OP, which seems VERY unlikely to be relevant here

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4 points

Nope.

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