Subject Access Request to harassing ex?

[Psuedoshoes]

Any legal eagles out there who can help me out? My awful, abusive ex who I haven't seen in 4 years continues to make my life hell. I get anonymous emails sent, 99.999% sure they're from him. I also get random emails from websites I've apparently signed up to. I just know he's the one doing it, I just know. I just want it to stop, I despise him and never want a reminder that he exists again.

He works as a Ltd Co. Sole employer. His phone was always listed as his business phone. My question is - can I send him a subject access request, asking for everything in my name including Internet searches, emails and website signups from any piece of IT equipment associated with his business? I've tried the police and they're not interested. I don't want to rile things up, I just want to send him a warning shot that he needs to stop inadvertently contacting me and that I just want to be left to forget he exists.

Hopefully someone with a bit more knowledge will come along but having done a tiny bit of research, I think you can only request the data that his company holds on you, ie. If you were a customer you could request what details they have on the database for you and any notes that might go along with your entry.

I don't think you could request things like "how many times and on what dates has my name been searched on the internet" because its just not feasible to do that (apologies if I got the wrong end of the stick).

In my line of work there are thousands of employees and we have access to databases that contain thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people. To check how many times someone's name has been searched on one database alone can be done, but it would take an awful lot of time. To then factor in Internet searches as well... I appreciate my organisation is likely to be a hell of a lot bigger than your ex's but I don't think a subject access request would cover that because its just too vast a thing and I don't think it actually comes under supporting of your personal information, if you see what I mean? I also don't think it would include your information being stored on his phone - I have people's numbers saved in my work phone if I'm in frequent contact with them but if they were to put in a request or would be "having checked the database, this is all the information we have on you" - they wouldn't then check every employees phone to say "this person has your details, as does this one and this one".

Does that make sense? It's early so I apologise if not! I've PM'd you as well.
Likewise, if someone made a request to my organisation

I know its a faff, and unfairly annoying but unless its a business email could you change your email to something he wouldn't guess?

If he’s breaking the law by harassing you do you think he’s likely to fully comply with a SAR? Isn’t it more likely he says he will and then says he has no information on you? If it’s him that’s been doing it he won’t tell you the truth.

Could you change your email to something he wouldn’t know? I know you shouldn’t have to.

@CovidCorvid

If he’s breaking the law by harassing you do you think he’s likely to fully comply with a SAR? Isn’t it more likely he says he will and then says he has no information on you? If it’s him that’s been doing it he won’t tell you the truth.

Could you change your email to something he wouldn’t know? I know you shouldn’t have to.

Absolutely this.

I had to change my email because someone was harassing me. I spent a period of time updating the bank etc and resubscribing then turned it off. It was surprisingly easy to do. And probably easier than trying to get the other person to admit they were doing wrong )the police are involved in my case and I made them aware I was doing this)

You can ask for any piece of information relating to you that is part of the business, so any emails or texts sent by the business to you, any documents with your name in them etc.

However, as you've said, he isn't using business email addresses, if it is him. So legally, he will have nothing to show you at all. It's all outside of his business. He also won't comply to be honest, if it is him harassing you, he's not going to help.

Change your email address. It's the easier way.

TBF, you've had 4 years to change your email. It's not difficult, you can keep it going till all relevant people are notified, then get rid, problem solved.

Don't give him the satisfaction of knowing he has got to you

I had an ex a bit like this and I changed my email.
He had works one too but when I made them aware of what he was doing they changed that for me too.
I had to get a new number too I was so annoyed but it was thr best thing to do.

What do the anonymous emails say?

You don't have to sign up for websites to be spammed as whilst GDPR can protect us from poor marketing practices it still means some people will ignore it. Since lockdown last year this has increased dramatically as people working from home often have lower IT security than offices.

For example when Yahoo have had breaches in the past those email details are still circulating and will be sold on, probably to dodgy sites, which is why so much spam comes from seedy sites. The level of email breaches, due to phising is high so I don't think you can determine it is due to one particular person. Also spammers will try random combinations of names to hit inboxes, it's easily done by simple programs so not always a breach of data.

The best way to handle an abusive person is No contact. Anything else just puts you back into the cycle. If you have never been a customer or client of his company that he will not have records for you.

Be rigorous in unsubscribing or blocking email domains you don't want to hear from. You could ask a company who sends an unsolicited email where they got your details from. However if they are dodgy they will just ignore you. If it's a legimate company they may be able to tell you where your email came from.

Sending him a SAR will give him a dopamine hit when he realises he's been successful in getting to you. That's the exact opposite of what you want to achieve.

Change your email address. Keep your old one open - the last thing you want to do is give him an auto reply saying "this email is closed" because then he'll know he's won, and he'll put effort into finding out your new one. Just leave it sitting there doing nowt, and reply only to the messages from known companies/people giving them your new email.

If your existing email is a Gmail one it's a matter of minutes to set up a new one and you can simply switch back and forth between them - no laborious process needed.

If your current email address is one from a website that you own, just ask your web designer/administrator to set you up a new slightly different email address.

My sympathies, these fucking clingy abusers who won't let go are a giant pain in the arse. I would recommend reading The Gift of Fear - it really changed my mindset about getting away from harassment and helped me understand that the urge to tell your harasser to fuck the fuck off is counter productive if you follow it.

I think you would probably need to check with the Information Commissioner's Office, they are the body that fines people for data breaches etc and companies must pay a fee to be registered with them if they process or store data.

However I agree with those above it would give him a high and most likely he could be forced to remove the data from his business databases etc but there is no equivalent for individuals, so you would be back at contacting the police for harassment when presumably he switched to non-business methods of communication.