Do you actually know what data is being collected about you? Your locations, personality, your preferences and favorites. But also your car, your income, your health, political opinion. Even your roommates or pets.
Your data belongs to you. The GDPR gives you the right to request your personal data from any company that collects and processes it. However, the procedure can be complicated and often time consuming. SOMI takes away the hassles by exercising your rights to access to your personal data on your behalf. All personal data is stored on our server fully encrypted, only you will have access to it.
The General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR) which came into force on 25th May 2018 in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA), enforces data protection and privacy for European citizens and residents. Under Article 15 of the GDPR, individuals have the ‘right of access’ and to receive a copy of their personal data from any data processing entity operating in the EU and EEA, along with the following information on how the personal data was and currently still is being collected and processed:
Purposes of data processing
Categories of personal data being processed
Recipients to whom personal data have been or will be disclosed
Envisaged period for which the personal data will be stored
Source(s) from which the personal data originate
The existence of automated decision-making or profiling, the information about the logic or algorithm involved, as well as the reasons behind and the possible consequences of such processing
Transfer of personal data to a third country outside of the EU and EEA
SOMI presents this following selection of foreign tech companies in the largest collective data request in Europe: TikTok, Palantir, and ZOOM. These are Chinese and US companies that process the personal data on millions of European citizens. According to our legislation, non-EU companies are fully obliged to follow GDPR guideline when processing personal data of European citizens and residents. SOMI has previously filed several complaints against these companies for allegedly violating GDPR and unlawfully processing our personal data.
The popular TikTok app collects a lot of the user's personal data such as personality and physical traits, IP address, phone and social network contacts, locations, and data provider information. The users are not sufficiently informed about these data transfers. TikTok is suspected of sending user data to servers in China. In addition, experts have found security flaws in the TikTok app that allow hackers to access user information.
Several public agencies in Europe are working with the US data analytics firm Palantir, which has been involved in data scandals and criticized for its close ties to the US government and intelligence agencies such as CIA and NSA. Moreover, COVID-19 pandemic has given Palantir more opportunities to access European citizens’ data, as many countries have extended the use of Palantir software to include tracking the spreading of the Coronavirus.
ZOOM video conference service has been accused of several data breaches and privacy violations. For instance, Zoom allegedly transfer its user data to Facebook and automatically link its users’ data to LinkedIn profiles without providing this information on their privacy policy. Moreover, various security flaws have been discovered that amongst others gave hackers access to users’ pc and laptop cameras.
In four simple steps you can request your personal data without any hassle.
We process your personal data as described on our privacy policy and in line with GDPR compliance. All personal data is only stored fully encrypted, so you (and not SOMI or anyone else) will have access to it.
You can choose to request your data from TikTok, Palantir and ZOOM, all of the above or any company selected by SOMI or yourself.
The first round of data request was submitted on 28th July 2021. The second round of request will be submitted on 11th August. You can check the number of registrations on our DPE scoreboard
When received a request, the companies are obliged to provide a copy of your data within the period of 1-3 months.
You can participate in this campaign by filling in the online registration form above.
You can only participate if you reside in the EU/EEA member states (including Ireland and Switzerland), and if you are 18 years or older. Unfortunately, it is not possible for non-EU residents to participate, however, please subscribe to SOMI to stay informed about our future actions that you might be able to participate in.
No, SOMI will not charge any fee for this campaign.
In order to request your personal data on your behalf, we need to be able to provide information to verify your identity and prove that you have given us authorization to act on your behalf. This is why we also ask you to sign the Power of Attorney.
National ID, Driver’s license or Passport
Please upload only the front side of this document (or picture of it) and black out the photo, national identification number, document number and any machine-readable areas prior to transferring it to us.
According to GDPR, these data processing entities should provide a complete copy of personal data within one month of receipt of the request. The GDPR also allows the extension of this time limit by an additional two months, taking into account the complexity and the number of requests.
At the moment of the transfer of this requested data from these companies to us, we will fully encrypt such data and store it securely on our server. You can download your personal data and relevant information via your account on my.somi.nl and via our SOMI app.
Should you, or any organization represented by you, be interested in financing any of our activities, reach out to us!
The best way of contacting us directly in these matters is by sending an email, briefly stating your contact details and interests, to campaign@somi.nl
Support our action by inviting your friends to participate.
If you are interested to be our media partner, please send an email to campaign@somi.nl.
