I’ve just checked my spam folder in Hotmail (I also have a Me.com address that NEVER has any spam) and found that the phishers and spammers are using the verification requirement to get data out of you. Amoung 6 emails from legit organisations I had another 4 that were being sent from addresses that made no sense and were obviously spammers / phishers trying to grab data. Please if you are responding to the required confirmation emails that are required that are sent to you check the email addresses that they are being sent from, they may not be whomyou think they are, if in doubt just delete them and don’t respond. 2020 Pangea Green 1st Edition D240 New Defender 110 is here and loving it
2018 Melting Silver Mini Countryman PHEV - soon to be replaced
2015MY Corris Grey SDv6 HSE Dynamic, the best car I have ever owned, totally reliable only a cou0le of rattles in 3 years, now no longer in my care
Also in my garage is a 1996 TDi300 Defender 90 County HT made into a fake CSW

Good advice Tim.

On the other side, I'm using the spate of " approve us" emails to finally get around to killing off the ones I'm subscribed to. Those ones that send "newsletters" every month etc. Just by not affirming your consent, they should stop sending them to you. Easier than going and following their unsubscribe routes. 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

Hitting "unsubscribe" just lets them know that e-mail address is still valid - not always a good thing.

Yeah, but ignoring their request for you to confirm that you want them to contact you means they delete you from their list. Or at least they should. No need to do anything. 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

I'm not sure that companies in far-flung places like Papua New Guinea or Azerbaijan know, or are bothered by, having to comply with GDPR if they employ even one EU resident.

HughN - companies in those far flung places need to comply of they have eu customers, not eu employees.

I agree it seems unlikely that they will care, although the fines are potentially quite large.

I think it's both: any data about EU citizens.

I won't bring politics into this, but I've learned the hard way not to criticise the EU. The Telegraph's book of unpublished letters contained two tongue-in-cheek letters of mine. These were [wrongly] taken as being pro-Brexit. My name is a Googlewack and I got loads of abusive e-mails. At least I didn't get the sort of actual threats I got when the local rag printed a letter saying how annoying the local fox population is.