OUR DATA, OUR CHOICE!
Are you a sex worker in the Netherlands and advertise online?
Have you been unexpectedly visited at home/work by police or municipality?
Did a police officer mention your sex work in an interaction unrelated to your work? For example, during a traffic stop?
Have police texted you pretending to be clients?
Then your personal data might have been automatically collected from your online advertisement! In other words, your data has been web-scraped.
The Our Data Our Choice Project aims to stop the illegal web scraping of sex workers’ online advertisements. We need your help with this!
How can you help? By your data from the police and/or municipality you can help us gather proof of this illegal and harmful practice. Here is how you can do this. We are available to support you through this at every stage.
See our Frequently Asked Questions below for more information!
Want to join the fight? Send us an e-mail at OurDataOurChoiceNL [at] proton [dot] me or get started with requesting your data!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Who can join this project?
A: Any sex worker who advertises online in the Netherlands can join! However, we encourage non-sex workers to also request their data as it helps minimize the risks for sex workers who do the same. The more people who request their data, the more normalized it becomes and the less sex workers stand out.
Q: Which organizations/companies can I request my data from?
A: By law, you have the right to request access to your data from any organization/company that processes it. This includes the police, the municipality, but also the advertising platforms themselves.
Q: How do I request my data?
Q: I've requested my data and the organization didn't reply. What do I do now?
A: If you haven’t heard back within one month, you can send a reminder letter or e-mail to the organization (you can use one of our templates). If they still don’t respond to that reminder after two weeks, you can formally complain to the Dutch Data Protection Authority. If you need help with any of this, you can always reach out to us at OurDataOurChoiceNL [at] proton [dot] me.
Q: I've requested and received my data. What "proof" do I look for?
A: Any of your personal data that you did not give to the organization itself, but is present in your online advertisement. For example: work number, work name, the fact that you do sex work.
Q: Would you have to look at all my data?
A: No! We can if you want to, but it’s ok to just send us the relevant parts. You are not obligated to send or show us any data at all if you don’t feel comfortable with it.
Q: Are there any risks to requesting my data?
A: In theory, there should be no risk to requesting your data as you have the right to do this without repercussion. In reality, we cannot guarantee that there is no risk, especially for sex workers. If you have requested your data and afterwards experienced what feels like retaliation for it, we have a lawyer on this project who can help you.
Q: I'm not a sex worker, can I request my data, too?
A: Of course! We encourage everyone to request their data. It normalizes data requests, which helps sex workers not stand out as much.
Q: I've received my data. Now what can I do with it?
A: If you see inaccurate information about you, you can request to correct it. If there is data about you that is no longer necessary to have, you can request to have it deleted. If there is proof that your online advertisement has been scraped, then we can start a class action lawsuit against the organization(s) in question and seek redress.
Q: I have questions that I don't see here. How can I reach you to ask them?
A: Email us! A member of our project is often hosting at the PIC on Fridays if you would like to ask your question in person.