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GDPR: the sidestepping begins

Publication: 
Nigel Morris-Co...
chiefofficersnet

It hasn't taken long. The General Data Protection Regulation came into force across the EU only on Friday. By Sunday evening, "Dejan Marinkovic" of "The Resort Group Global" had, apparently, decided that the way around it is simple: just put the name of the company in the body of the e-mail and, thereby, establishing that, as business correspondence, the mail fell outside the GDPR. His premise? That, if the addressee (who, incidentally, is personally identifiable from the e-mail address) clicks on a link, there will be benefits. But then it becomes even more strange.

The body of the message reads

Nigel,

I'd like to recommend clients to The Anti Money Laundering Network so I've added you to my referral network.

Simply click the link below. Thanks!

Best,
Dejan Marinkovic
The Resort Group Global

Well, he can bog off, right there, right now: who the Hell is this idiot to think he can write to me using my Christian name as if he knows me? I've no idea who he is and have no wish to. He is absolutely not a friend nor is he anyone I know personally or have had an direct commercial interaction with.

If he does in fact represent Resort Group Global then Resort Group PLC, the website of which says it is "headquartered in Gibraltar", is in trouble - because their GDPR compliance has, it appears, already fallen apart. But to be fair to them, it may be nothing of the sort.

The link, said to be from "member@referralkey.com" with an IP address of 50.57.74.129 is to something called "referalkey.com." So I went to look at it. This is where that domain name took me:

---------------- Advertising ----------------

World Nomads
Travel Insurance


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