In March, I received an unsolicited email from a company called Gravicus. It was scaremongering nonsense, touting their data management software via the threat of director liability for data breaches. So far, so what: I get a lot of spammy junk from GDPR people to my 2040 Training email address, but this was to a personal Gmail address that I don’t give out all that often. The email claimed that it had been sent to me because I was “registered on Leadiro”, who I have never heard of. Under PECR, email sent to an address for which I am an individual subscriber can only be sent with consent (or soft opt-in), and given that I had heard of neither Gravicus or Leadiro before the email arrived, they had neither.
I contacted Gravicus to make a subject access request on 20th March, asking how they had obtained my data, what Leadiro had told them and for any other personal data about me that they held. Separately, I contacted Leadiro and asked them why they were selling my data. Leadiro got back to me, and confirmed that they had not supplied my data to Gravicus.
Having had no reply from Gravicus beyond an automated acknowledgement, I emailed them again on April 2nd, asking for confirmation that my request was being dealt with, and also passing on what Leadiro said. A week went by with no acknowledgement, so I wrote to the company’s registered office address and business address, chasing them up.
Gravicus finally reacted on 16th April via a letter from their lawyers, Keystone Law. Keystone admitted on behalf of their clients that the Leadiro story was false, and that my data had been harvested from the “business oriented and professional website” LinkedIn. I apparently connected “voluntarily” with a named Gravicus consultant, who then exported her connections to obtain contact details of “relevant professionals in the sector”. Nearly a month into my request, Gravicus wanted a copy of my passport and utility bill, certified by a lawyer, accountant or similar professional, as well as the £10 fee. I paid the £10 and sent an uncertified copy of my passport. The lawyers still demanded the utility bill as proof of my address, despite the fact that Gravicus’ own version of events shows that they would have nothing to compare it to – they have only ever dealt with me via email or Twitter. In any case, Keystone had already named the individual who harvested my address, so if it was wrong to reply to my subject access request without proof of address, why was it right to give me the name of the consultant? I threatened to complain to the Information Commissioner, and they backed down. I have no doubt that Gravicus took this approach to obstruct my request, which when they had already breached PECR and Data Protection isn’t the best way to resolve a problem.
It is a breach of LinkedIn’s terms and conditions to
Harvesting and using email addresses from LinkedIn in breach of their terms and conditions, without transparency and a legal basis is a clear breach of Data Protection. Gravicus did not have my consent, and by misrepresenting the source of my data in the email that they sent me, they blew any chance of relying on legitimate interests. Their use of my data was unlawful. Gravicus’ lawyers claimed that the confusion over where my data came from was understandable because Leadiro was one source that they were using. But that isn’t true. The CEO of Leadiro told me explicitly: “Gravicus are not a Leadiro customer, and have never been a Leadiro customer“. Added to that, sending a marketing email to an individual subscriber without consent is a breach of PECR, and Gravicus knew I was an individual subscriber because their records had my address marked as ‘Personal’.
Despite the fact that Gravicus’ original spam email touted data breaches as being the personal responsibility of directors, one of the shabbiest things about their response is the way they sought to throw their consultant under the bus. They named her straight away, and claimed that the company didn’t know that she was harvesting emails from LinkedIn, even though their lawyers continually stressed that I had voluntarily made my email available to her. In other words, you asked for it, but we didn’t know it was happening. I don’t believe this, but it doesn’t matter whose idea it was. The directors are responsible for what their company does, not some consultant who blocks people on Twitter when they ask awkward questions. Instead of dealing with me like a human being, Gravicus lawyered up and tried to obstruct my subject access request with bogus demands for unnecessary personal data, itself an additional breach of DP law.
This might seem like a lot of fuss for a spam email. But look at what Gravicus is selling as a data processor. Their product works like this: “Tell Osprey your data sources, provide your access credentials and it will connect automatically to analyse your data“. As a data processor, they will have access to a huge amount of sensitive and possibly special categories personal data held by their clients. The GDPR states that data controllers “shall use only processors providing sufficient guarantees to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures in such a manner that processing will meet the requirements of this Regulation and ensure the protection of the rights of the data subject“.
Gravicus harvested my data unlawfully, they gave me false information about where personal data has been obtained from, they demanded excessive personal data when dealing with my subject access request, and they sent me unlawful unsolicited emails in breach of PECR. They claim that they’ve stopped gathering data in this way, but it never should have happened in the first place, and suggests that the directors don’t know what’s going on in their company. In any case, when caught out, they hide behind their lawyers and consultants instead of dealing direct. Any organisation thinking of using them as a data processor should think long and hard about whether Gravicus can offer the kind of guarantees that GDPR requires.