RE: Mike Ashley10 May 2024 12:30
"Certainly! Let’s delve into the topic of whether a business can legally sell personal data.
**1. **Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), businesses must follow specific rules when handling personal information. Here are some key points:
- **Personal Information**: The GDPR defines personal data as any information related to an identifiable person. This includes identifiers like names, identification numbers, location data, and more. Whether information qualifies as personal data depends on whether an individual can be identified or is reasonably identifiable in specific circumstances.
- **Sensitive Information**: Sensitive information is a category of personal data that includes details about an individual's racial or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, political opinions, health, and more. Mishandling sensitive information can have a greater impact on the individual, so it receives higher privacy protection.
**2. **Trading in Personal Information: - If a business collects or discloses personal information for commercial gain without the consent of the individuals to whom the information belongs, it is considered to be trading in personal information1. - For example, if a business buys or sells a mailing list without the consent of the individuals on that list, it is trading in personal information.
**3. **Consent Requirements: - Under the GDPR, businesses must obtain consent from individuals before collecting their personal data. Consent can be obtained through actions like clicking a checkbox or ticking a box online. - Businesses need to inform individuals transparently about how their data will be used and shared with other organizations.
**4. **Exceptions: - There are exceptions to selling personal data. For instance, if the data was initially collected for a purpose other than sale (e.g., providing services), it cannot be sold without transparently informing the data subjects.
In summary, businesses can legally sell personal data under the GDPR, but it depends on context, consent, and transparency. If you suspect your data is being sold without proper consent, consider taking steps like requesting information from the data controller or submitting a complaint to the relevant data protection authority. Remember that misuse of personal data can result in fines or compensation."
Source: Bing
so Bdf you are wrong because businesses can legally sell personal data, but as the source states, it depends obviously on the context, consent and transparency. So it is wrong of you to indicate that it can't be. Perhaps you would like to provide your sources to show that it can't be, as you suggest? Then again, perhaps not bother, as it's cluttering up this forum.