another company contact my employer about email sent

johnmck

I sent an email to another company from my personal email account, asking to be removed from a mailing list because I do not endorse what they are doing and I called it exploitation. They took it upon themselves to find out who I am, and contacted my employer to tell him they were not happy about it. Again, the contact was sent from my personal email account under my own time. There was nothing about it that was too harsh, just asking to be removed from their email list because I said what they are engaging in is exploitation of people i.e. JobBridge.

Do they have any right to contact my employer?

Yer Aul One

How did they find your employer?

Snake

Another JobBridge moan. Yay.

And why can't they contact Him? If they've no right to contact him then you've no right to contact them. Unless there's a court order in place that disallows it no law was broken.

johnmck

must have looked up my linkedin profile

johnmck

GrayFox208, I have a right to contact them , they emailed me on their mailing list about a JobBridge position, I emailed them back asking to be removed and the reason, so yes I do have a right to contact them. They have no subsequent right to contact my employer and threaten my position.

Yer Aul One

GrayFox208 wrote: »

Another JobBridge moan. Yay.

And why can't they contact Him? If they've no right to contact him then you've no right to contact them. Unless there's a court order in place that disallows it no law was broken.

Hold on a minute there mate, this is a ridiculous argument. He contacted them but they contacted his employer. Totally different shark

Snake

Yer Aul One wrote: »

Hold on a minute there mate, this is a ridiculous argument. He contacted them but they contacted his employer. Totally different shark

Well why can't they contact the employer? I see your point but the contact and employer can be in contact if they wish

Pro Hoc Vice

GrayFox208 wrote: »

Another JobBridge moan. Yay.

And why can't they contact Him? If they've no right to contact him then you've no right to contact them. Unless there's a court order in place that disallows it no law was broken.

Data protection law may have been broken depending on how the company got the email address, and its perfectly valid to request to be removed from any direct mailing system.

Pro Hoc Vice

johnmck wrote: »

GrayFox208, I have a right to contact them , they emailed me on their mailing list about a JobBridge position, I emailed them back asking to be removed and the reason, so yes I do have a right to contact them. They have no subsequent right to contact my employer and threaten my position.

A complaint to Data Protection Commissioner maybe in order.

wrt40

not legal advice here, but my opinion. If you willingly put your details on public display on the internet then anyone is free to do whatever they like with it and you lose all right to complain about it.

Pro Hoc Vice

wrt40 wrote: »

not legal advice here, but my opinion. If you willingly put your details on public display on the internet then anyone is free to do whatever they like with it and you lose all right to complain about it.

Just in case I missed it but where did the OP say that e-mail details are on public display. I would not consider Linkedin public display.

AnCatDubh

In terms of them using your data and provisions of Data Protection it may depend on what you signed up to in the first place (which we don't know). Core to the rules of data protection is that an organisation must:

Keep it [your data] only for one or more specified, explicit and lawful purposes
and
Use and disclose it [your data] only in ways compatible with these purposes

for more - see here

So depending on what you signed up to the use of your personal data (your email address, name, employer name) may be inappropriate by them and potentially a breach of the DP Acts.

If you are signed up to their contact list with such clauses that they may contact your employer, or they may use your data to contact unspecified third parties about you, then they may actually be within their rights to have done so.

A call to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner will sort you out on it.

(Also worthy of consideration is that it depends on how far you want to invest your own time on this, or what significance your employer is taking from whatever was said to them - which is unclear from your posts. An ultimate outcome even if the company are in the wrong could be an apology (not necessarily even to you) on the basis that it was an action by an uninformed member of staff now being sent on a DP training course, situation rectified and won't happen again, and there may be nothing further to be said/had from it -- or, if it was serious as in you are now being dismissed from your employment, i'd guess that the office of the data protection commissioner would take a more serious view of the matter).

nuckeythompson

Some seriously misinformed people here. If the OP was on a mailing list with personal email add then only contact from the company after a request to be removed can only be a request reagrding why the want to be removed or a confirmation mail. After that they are not allowed to contact you on your personal mail.
To send a mail to your employer was a very silly think to do. The main concern here is what the content of the mail is. Also whoever sent the mail does not have 100% proof that they are referring to the correct person.
There are some cases where this could be overlooked but its rare. This may depend what your position is or what industry your working in

Yer Aul One

What size is the company that sent the mail? Was it the owner?

Just wondering if you can make a complaint to this person's senior or HR dept.

johnmck

They phoned my employer. I think they have links with my employer, so must know I work here. It's worrying because my LinkedIn profile is locked down at the moment, so nobody but connections can see it. Worrying and stressful. I think I'll have to make contact with data protection commissioner.

Manach

Given that the DPC are fairly pro-active in investigating cases (based on a perusal of their website), then this is certainly an issue they'd be interested in as Personal information of a data subject must only be used for proportional and legitimate ends. Saying that, a consideration is for the OP not to get involved in a situation which could ultimately lessen his own standing at work. Thus a polite email request to that company for clarification might be first step.

nuckeythompson

if its a phonecall I can assure you very little will be done about it. At most it might cause you more trouble than its worth. Phonecalls can be denied they ever took place. The most certainly have links with eachother so you will end up pissing someone off that you probably best leave be

porsche959

wrt40 wrote: »

not legal advice here, but my opinion.

This is the legal discussion forum, and as they say in America, opinions are like a certain part of the anamtomy, etc.

wrt40 wrote: »

If you willingly put your details on public display on the internet then anyone is free to do whatever they like with it and you lose all right to complain about it.

So, to use an admittedly extreme example, if you post photos of your kids on Facebook and other identifying information, and a paedophile tracks them down to their school to harass them, it's all your fault?

wrt40

porsche959 wrote: »

So, to use an admittedly extreme example, if you post photos of your kids on Facebook and other identifying information, and a paedophile tracks them down to their school to harass them, it's all your fault?

To use another American phrase, "you got it in one". People need to be educated on the dangers of social media. Ignorance is no excuse. and on a side issue, I think parents who put photos of their kids on the internet should be prosecuted.

wrote:

I would not consider Linkedin public display.

Seriously?

Pro Hoc Vice

wrt40 wrote: »

To use another American phrase, "you got it in one". People need to be educated on the dangers of social media. Ignorance is no excuse.


Seriously?

Yes as no one can see any of my detail unless I accept the request. Allowing access to my information to a small number of people I know is not public by its ver definition it remains private information.

Sheldons Brain

The OP asked the company to remove information held about him. The company then used the information they held to track him down by a different, and entirely inappropriate, method. This is the opposite of data protection and the commissioner would surely be interested.

johnmck

thanks everybody for the wise words of advice. I'll see where this goes and what hand to play , but it's good knowing that I'm protected by the law, and that people in certain companies will need to watch their egos and who they think they can go around bullying.

wrt40

Pro Hoc Vice wrote: »

Yes as no one can see any of my detail unless I accept the request. Allowing access to my information to a small number of people I know is not public by its ver definition it remains private information.

Nothing you put on the internet is private. But anyway, it was the op who said he thinks they found out his place of employment through linkedIn. So he either has loose privacy settings or has granted them access. My point still stands, If they did indeed get the information from LinkedIn I don't see how they are not entitled to use that information.

must have looked up my linkedin profile

johnmck

Yes, If my information is public they can use it, but that's not what we are discussing, we are discussing the context in which they used it wrt40

nuckeythompson

they used it but they used it via phonecall. That will be very difficult to use. My question would be how did you find out? Was it a case of friendly advice from your employer?

Pro Hoc Vice

wrt40 wrote: »

Nothing you put on the internet is private. But anyway, it was the op who said he thinks they found out his place of employment through linkedIn. So he either has loose privacy settings or has granted them access. My point still stands, If they did indeed get the information from LinkedIn I don't see how they are not entitled to use that information.

I would think in these circumstances the Data Protection commissioner may disagree with you. In this case the OP received an email, the OP responded via a a personal email address to asked to be removed from the list as is their right, the OP then added they had a problem with the company. That company then contacted their employer, information they may have got via linkedin. This is not a professional way to deal with a request to be removed from a database, and may be a number of breaches of data protection, you may believe once you put it up on the net tough, but the DPC and the Courts have shown they disagree in some circumstances.

nuckeythompson

With Linkedin you may only contact the person with the details you used to sign up. The T&Cs tell you that you can be contacted but only with details provided

wrt40

Pro Hoc Vice wrote: »

I would think in these circumstances the Data Protection commissioner may disagree with you. In this case the OP received an email, the OP responded via a a personal email address to asked to be removed from the list as is their right, the OP then added they had a problem with the company. That company then contacted their employer, information they may have got via linkedin. This is not a professional way to deal with a request to be removed from a database, and may be a number of breaches of data protection, you may believe once you put it up on the net tough, but the DPC and the Courts have shown they disagree in some circumstances.

I agree it stinks and very unprofessional. But my understanding is that they used his email address from the email he sent them, or is it that they took it from their database? That is a different story.

nuckeythompson wrote:

With Linkedin you may only contact the person with the details you used to sign up. The T&Cs tell you that you can be contacted but only with details provided

T&Cs are not going to stop people using your information and its very naive to think that some small print is going to protect your data. Besides, there is no way of proving they got your information from LinkedIn unless they admit it.

fwwiw, I've had people use my information off of daft.ie. DPC told me there was nothing they could do because the information was publically available.

Pro Hoc Vice

wrt40 wrote: »

I agree it stinks and very unprofessional. But my understanding is that they used his email address from the email he sent them, or is it that they took it from their database? That is a different story.


T&Cs are not going to stop people using your information and its very naive to think that some small print is going to protect your data. Besides, there is no way of proving they got your information from LinkedIn unless they admit it.

fwwiw, I've had people use my information off of daft.ie. DPC told me there was nothing they could do because the information was publically available.

daft.ie which only requires a person to find the page with the contact details and not be a member, and in reality not providing any privacy nor an expectation of same is very different to this situation where the company had the email address from we know not where, had received a request to not use same, and then may have searched linkdin to discover current employer to confront them on a valid request to be removed from a database.

wrt40

Sorry but I'm not buying any of this. They knew who he worked for, had connections with his employer and subsequently rang the company to complain about the content of an email one of their employees sent. He's basically been stunk and will have to live and learn. Good luck with your endeavour OP but my advice is put it down to experience.

nuckeythompson

wrt40 wrote: »

Sorry but I'm not buying any of this. They knew who he worked for, had connections with his employer and subsequently rang the company to complain about the content of an email one of their employees sent. He's basically been stunk and will have to live and learn. Good luck with your endeavour OP but my advice is put it down to experience.

100% agree, thats why they made a phonecall to complain and did not use email

Mr. Incognito

OP is on Marketing List

Holder of List has responsibilities as data controller.

OP emails from private email for purpose of being removed from that data list. Lists reason for doing so.

Marketing List Owner then searches for employer using data (name, email etc)

Marketing List Owner then calls employer to stink

This is a clear breach of data protection. A very clear breach.

Secondly it may be defamation. How does the Market List holder know it is the correct person. If they obtained it from LinkedIn I would say that the use of the data received is a breach of LinkedIn's terms and conditions also.

If any detriment comes by way of complaint to employer, reprimand etc it is clear that the Data Holder would be responsible for the breach and you would have a very strong claim for damages.

I would send an email asking the company if they contacted your employer. I must ask how you have come to know that your employer was contacted?

Keep records of all communications between you, the data holder and your employer. Phone calls can be traced you know.

evolving_doors

GrayFox208 wrote: »

Another JobBridge moan. Yay.

And why can't they contact Him? If they've no right to contact him then you've no right to contact them. Unless there's a court order in place that disallows it no law was broken.

oh thats rich ! a moan about a jobbridge moan..

At least I know im moaning.

garhjw

I don't buy the story. I don't believe they would follow up the request to be removed from a mailing list unless there was more to it. What's the point?

BloodThirsty

garhjw wrote: »

I don't buy the story. I don't believe they would follow up the request to be removed from a mailing list unless there was more to it. What's the point?

not just that op told them he disagreed with jobbridge and it was exploitation. so they were probably pissed with that. i agree with mr incognito they are on very thin ice and the sun is coming out....

oh god i wish it was me...

Dr Nic

Total breach of confidentiality if the sequence of event is as the op said and defo grounds to clean that company out IMO.

Very strange tho. U must have sent a stinker of an email

dixiefly

johnmck wrote: »

They phoned my employer. I think they have links with my employer, so must know I work here. It's worrying because my LinkedIn profile is locked down at the moment, so nobody but connections can see it. Worrying and stressful. I think I'll have to make contact with data protection commissioner.

Yes, definitely. And I would contact the company in question and make a formal complaint in writing to them and inform them that you are making a complaint to the Data Protection commissioner.

In fact, if it was me I would be naming and shaming them here.

johnmck

Dr Nic wrote: »

Total breach of confidentiality if the sequence of event is as the op said and defo grounds to clean that company out IMO.

Very strange tho. U must have sent a stinker of an email

No not a stinker, just my opinion that I didn't endorse JB and that I had friends and family that had been exploited by it and that I couldn't endorse the organisation going forward. My employer has been careful enough not to say it direct to me yet, but he has said it to other staff members about the organisation phoning him to complain. I'll leave it alone for now.