Haha that's not dodgy at all. There is a legitimate business around selling data;
This is OK in 3 scenarios I can think offhand: 1) A company collects personal/contact information on behalf of another and is upfront about this at collection 2) A company contacts their list asking if these people would like to share their information with a company 3) Permission to sell information is in the T&C on sign-up of the original company.
If one of these 3 is not covered I image companies should purge data if the business closes. Option 2 would be good for companies that are looking for a cash bump on the way out.
At a financial level I see a bunch of people with lists in the 10's of thousands and they are surprised how little it is worth. To earn a western level income from a contact list you'd likely need a hundred thousand plus of contacts assuming a typical consumer audience and reasonable response rates. Lists are worth significantly more for specific hard to reach groups like CTO's or surgeons etc. For me these would be 15x what I pay against a standard consumer list as a massive generalisation.
It's illegal to sell user data without explicit consent in a lot of countries. It should also be illegal in the US tho due to the Fair Information Practices.
What is defined as explicit consent? Most terms of service and EULAs on websites and software do explicitly give the company the right to sell your data.
Also aren't the FTC's Fair Information Practices just recommendations with no consequences for violating?
Probably "We are going to disclose your data to party X. Do you consent this?". Saying that you are going to share user information with undisclosed 3rd parties seems like a bit too broad.
In the UK, even if you've managed to buy emails it's of no use, you aren't allowed to contact people unless you've had a business relationship for a related product in the last 12 months.
Judges range in how they feel about these complaints, generally you won't be able to claim just for the time they've wasted, you'll have to justify why you have suffered damages. Extreme cases are different, if they're truly wasting huge amounts of your time, but the occasional email is unlikely to be enough for wasted time.
Alternatively, you can get the ICO to tell them off even if you haven't suffered any damages, but that's not always easy…
This is OK in 3 scenarios I can think offhand: 1) A company collects personal/contact information on behalf of another and is upfront about this at collection 2) A company contacts their list asking if these people would like to share their information with a company 3) Permission to sell information is in the T&C on sign-up of the original company.
If one of these 3 is not covered I image companies should purge data if the business closes. Option 2 would be good for companies that are looking for a cash bump on the way out.
At a financial level I see a bunch of people with lists in the 10's of thousands and they are surprised how little it is worth. To earn a western level income from a contact list you'd likely need a hundred thousand plus of contacts assuming a typical consumer audience and reasonable response rates. Lists are worth significantly more for specific hard to reach groups like CTO's or surgeons etc. For me these would be 15x what I pay against a standard consumer list as a massive generalisation.