I’ve been informed about an existing profile using my name, experience and accomplishments on a well-known linkedin-like platform. I’m not (and ever was) an user of this platform. Moreover, the data on this profile was causing me issues to get some paperwork to be approved, so I needed this to be corrected.
I decided to reach out to the platform to ask for the data to be corrected:
Jérôme, Jul 14, 00:58 PDT
Hello,
I discovered a profile for a homonym using some of my accomplishments on his profile: hxxps://www.the-platform.com/person/jerome-boursier
redacted redacted redacted redacted
Can you correct its content quickly? I’m available if you need more information.
Best regards,
I got an answer after a few days:
##- Please type your reply above this line -##
Your request (171181) has been updated. To add additional comments, reply to this email.
Salman redacted, Jul 16, 11:33 PDT
Hi Jérôme,
Thanks for reaching out! As the platform is a crowdsourced database, any registered user can add profiles and edit any of the existing profiles on the platform. We believe the profile you linked us to is your own as the profile may have been added by our staff during a data expansion project, a colleague, or any avid contributor of the platform.
Keep in mind that you can edit and update this profile yourself as long as you create a user account.
Let me know if you run into any issues. Thanks!
All the best, Salman
This answer wasn’t satisfying at all. This profile was definitively not mine (the picture on it was not looking like me in any way, the job position wasn’t mine, either were some of the professional experience listed). And still, several of my accomplishments were listed as being this person’s.
So I decided to.. sudo gdpr:
Jérôme, Jul 16, 13:03 PDT
Hello,
I insist that this profile is not mine. It uses some of my data as it was his.
If you really believe that this is my profile, then I don’t see why you cannot delete it. For the record, I live in Europe. If you don’t believe this is mine and that the achievements listed is incorrect, then I believe it falls under GDPR and I have the right to ask for correction.
Best regards,
Finally, the answer was much better, and the platform effectively took action to correct the profile and remove everything that was related to myself from it.
Your request (171181) has been updated. To add additional comments, reply to this email.
Salman
, Jul 17, 11:41 PDT Hi Jérôme,
Thanks for your patience and response. We’ve updated the profile to remove any information that might have been confused for yours: hxxps://www.the-platform.com/person/jerome-boursier
Let us know if we missed anything and we’ll be happy to help!
All the best, Salman
It could take months to get such request being taken in account before GDPR. As it’s effective since May 25th, it’s often an efficient way to make companies obey in a fast manner as the legal risks are now well understood, so don’t hesitate to use it!