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18.11.2020, 20:17
| Newbie 1st class | | Join Date: Sep 2020 Location: Zurich
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| | Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland?
Hello lovely people!
I received an unsolicited e-mail (Not marketing) in a business e-mail address which is not available online anywhere and I never provided to the sender. I think that, knowing my name, the sender just guessed the syntax of the e-mail addresses of my company and reached me.
I was wondering, is this action legal in Switzerland? (Which should adhere to the GDPR regulation)
Thank you! | 
18.11.2020, 20:20
| Forum Legend | | Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Zurich
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| | Re: Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland?
It's certainly a shady move that I would slap down outright, regardless of the law.
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18.11.2020, 20:28
| Newbie 1st class | | Join Date: Sep 2020 Location: Zurich
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| | Re: Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland? | Quote: | |  | | | It's certainly a shady move that I would slap down outright, regardless of the law. | | | | | I will report anyway  Just curious about the laws of the Country ! | 
18.11.2020, 20:29
| Forum Veteran | | Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Basel
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| | Re: Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland?
Call the police. | The following 2 users would like to thank Landers for this useful post: | | 
18.11.2020, 20:30
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| | Re: Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland? | Quote: | |  | | | Call the police.  | | | | | This sounds too heavy to me | 
18.11.2020, 20:37
| Forum Veteran | | Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Basel
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| | Re: Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland? | Quote: | |  | | | This sounds too heavy to me  | | | | |
Then what? It's more your business's fault than anything else.
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18.11.2020, 20:38
|  | Forum Legend | | Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Rapperswil
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| | Re: Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland?
Using an email address is not illegal under GDPR even without consent, as there are a few other allowed criteria.
There's a good article on the subject here: https://www.cognitivelaw.co.uk/gdpr-...personal-data/ | The following 2 users would like to thank newtoswitz for this useful post: | | 
18.11.2020, 20:48
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| | Re: Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland? | Quote: | |  | | | | | | | | Interesting article, thanks for sharing. Still, it deals with business-to-business marketing while in my case the e-mail was personal and directed to me as an individual. Also, my doubt is not really linked to the consent, but to the fact that the email address has been guessed by retrieving the sintax of my company.
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18.11.2020, 20:55
|  | Forum Legend | | Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Rapperswil
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| | Re: Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland? | Quote: | |  | | | Interesting article, thanks for sharing. Still, it deals with business-to-business marketing while in my case the e-mail was personal and directed to me as an individual. Also, my doubt is not really linked to the consent, but to the fact that the email address has been guessed by retrieving the sintax of my company. | | | | | I'm not sure what area of law could make guessing an email address illegal.
If they guessed the email in order to send you a personal message, surely the content of that message or the intent behind it is the point in question. Guessing your email isn't really any different to phoning the company and asking for you by name.
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18.11.2020, 20:57
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| | Re: Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland? | Quote: | |  | | | I'm not sure what area of law could make guessing an email address illegal.
If they guessed the email in order to send you a personal message, surely the content of that message or the intent behind it is the point in question. Guessing your email isn't really any different to phoning the company and asking for you by name. | | | | | Yes I agree, sounds like a form of “social engineering” that should be allowed by the regulation. Thank you for sharing your point!
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18.11.2020, 21:26
| Member | | Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: Hausen am Albis, ZH
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| | Re: Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland?
Nothing illegal - there has been a proliferation of email discovery tools over the last couple of years. https://hunter.io is one of the more popular but there are at least 5 more.
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19.11.2020, 08:19
| Forum Legend | | Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: Nyon
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| | Re: Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland?
I’ve guessed at email addresses a few times myself. For my legitimate reasons. Not once did they ask how I got their address.
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19.11.2020, 08:30
| Forum Legend | | Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Albisrieden
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| | Re: Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland?
In the mid 1990s the joke was Bill Clinton’s email was president@whitehouse.gov while Hilary’s was root@whitehouse.gov | 
19.11.2020, 11:24
|  | Forum Legend | | Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Zurich area
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| | Re: Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland? | Quote: | |  | | | I was wondering, is this action legal in Switzerland? | | | | | As far as I know there is no regulation which would make it illegal. Accordingly it is legal. See also Art. 1 Swiss Criminal Code.
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19.11.2020, 14:12
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| | Re: Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland? | The following 5 users would like to thank Landers for this useful post: | | 
19.11.2020, 18:51
|  | A modal singularity | | Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Morgins, VS (and Alsace)
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| | Re: Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland? | Quote: | |  | | |
I was wondering, is this action legal in Switzerland? (Which should adhere to the GDPR regulation)
| | | | | 1. Of course it's legal. Why would you possibly think it might not be?
2. GDPR would have absolutely no bearing on this. Only if they are storing some data about you could it be in any way relevant.
3. Switzerland is not bound by GDPR, which is an EU regulation, anyway.
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19.11.2020, 20:19
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| | Re: Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland? | Quote: | |  | | | Guessing your email isn't really any different to phoning the company and asking for you by name. | | | | | Exactly.
Often, but not always, larger companies or organisations simply follow firstname.surname@organisationorcompanyname.ch. It's not rocket science. Some even use their website to invite one to mail employees on an address of this, or another given, format.
In my experience quite a lot of mail is initiated - and very conveniently so - in just this way: by guessing from a range of standard formats, or by following the known format of other employees of the company or institution. Seems perfectly reasonable to me.
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19.11.2020, 20:41
| Member | | Join Date: Sep 2020 Location: In your head
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| | Re: Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland? | Quote: | |  | | | 3. Switzerland is not bound by GDPR, which is an EU regulation, anyway. | | | | | Depends where the email originated and which countries the company has dealings with AFAIK.
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20.11.2020, 12:29
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| | Re: Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland? | Quote: | |  | | | | | | | | Ahahah is way worse than a Karen | 
20.11.2020, 18:03
| Forum Veteran | | Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Mies
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| | Re: Is email-guessing legal in Switzerland? | Quote: | |  | | | Depends where the email originated and which countries the company has dealings with AFAIK. | | | | | Switzerland's data protection law is largely derived from the European GDPR, not surprisingly in view of the volume of exchanges which take place with the EU. That said, I don't see what GDPR or Swiss data protection laws would have to say on this. I'm sure this happens hundreds of times each day, both in Switzerland and the rest of the world. What's wrong with guessing e-mail addresses? Mind you trying to reach John.Smith@bigmultinational.com might have the mail routing system scratch its head a little.
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