Right of Access: Who is Using Your Data?

Do you know exactly who your information is being sold to, and your rights?

Most people don’t. Perhaps that’s why we see so many data providers blatantly disregarding the regulations.

Individuals have the right to know exactly who is using their information for marketing purposes, yet most data providers will only divulge which type or ‘category’ of company they have sold an individual’s data to. We can name ZoomInfo, Cognism and Lusha as notable data providers who flout the rules. Read on to find out more.

Right of access: what’s new?

The Advocate General Pitruzzella delivered an opinion on the 9^th June 2022 ( ECLI:EU:C:2022:452) that shared some considerations about the right of access by the data subject (an individual) under Article 15 of the GDPR.

In particular, whether the data subject should be informed about the specific recipients that received their data or whether it is enough to indicate the categories of recipients.

The Advocate General concluded that the data subject is entitled to know which particular recipient(s) had access to their data.

The only limitations to this are if it is materially impossible to identify the specific recipients, for example if a subject’s data hasn’t been sold yet. Or if the data controller can demonstrate that the data subject’s requests are ‘manifestly unfounded or excessive,’ within the meaning of Article 12(5) of Regulation 2016/679. In either of these situations naming categories is sufficient.

What must data controllers/providers do?

Data controllers are generally marketing information research companies and data providers, like us.

We provide information to our subscription clients for them to use for direct marketing purposes. Of course, given the nature of the business and the importance of data security, this is a well-regulated industry.

At i-4business we do everything that we need to do to make sure our data is accurate and compliant. This is vital to protect data subjects, our business, and it’s in the best interests of our clients. After all, bad data = bad results.

We have done some seemingly essential research into industry practices regarding right of access and some of our discoveries have left us stunned.

We are the only provider that passes on the level of information that we are expected to when data subjects make a right of access request.

A data subject should be able to ask: who, specifically, have you provided my data to? And, where did you originally gather my data from?

To our knowledge, based on extensive research, we are the only data provider who is correctly processing the contacts in our database in order to provide this information when individuals request it. We are the only company that provides opt out updates to clients. Most importantly, we are the only company that seems to take data privacy seriously and as a result we are the only compliant data provider in the market.

As we have mentioned, remarkably, all of the major competitors that we analysed came up short. ZoomInfo, Cognism and Lusha.

Contact us to find out more

If you want to make a right of access request, simply fill in our contact form or email support@i4b.com.

If you want some new, accurate and compliant data for your business, look no further. At i-4business our data platform allows you to filter by region, size/turnover, vertical markets, company or job title, from the largest database for enterprise B2B contact data for the EMEA region available in the industry.

Find your ideal future clients in our database today with our 30-day free account.

Sign up now or to find out more please call us on 01252 367400.