https://www.cognitivelaw.co.uk/gdpr-issues-do-work-emails-co...
> Recital 47 of the GDPR states that “The processing of personal data for direct marketing purposes may be regarded as carried out for a legitimate interest”. However, if you intend to rely on legitimate interest rather than consent, you will need to apply the following three-part test:
> 1. The purpose test: Are you processing personal data in pursuit of a legitimate interest?
> 2. The necessity test: Is the processing proportionate to achieving your aims?
> 3. The balancing test: Is your legitimate interest overridden by the rights of the person whose data you’re processing?
> This is a side project that just started gaining a little bit of traction, and I'll certainly look into all the above.
You are selling a product without even knowing the legality of doing so?
For those nodding in agreement, ask yourself whether this line of thinking would hold up in court.
Rather than facilitating cold-calls to startup founders/leaders (which, let's face it, is generally a waste of their time and which they probably don't deserve that kind of punishment), why not expose the emails/contact-info of executives for bad actors in the marketplace, companies that have recently been sued or charged with crimes or civil complaints (by the SEC/FCC/etc.), companies that have had exposes written about them, etc.?
I'm not saying this will be a more profitable service or anything btw; in fact I'm quite certain it will have much less profit opportunity. But maybe this is something you can do to buy back some goodwill, to counterbalance the profit-seeking and cold-call/spam enabling side of this project.
I'm not an expert on laws, GDPR, when consent is needed, by whom, etc.
This is a side project that just started gaining a little bit of traction, and I'll certainly look into all the above.
However, the emails I add are publicly available, found on the internet. Not from some leaked database.
I also have prices high in order to keep spammers away and have a small handful of customers. I only have about twenty, and they are targeting different kind of startups.