Lobster FAQ

What is Lobster?
Legal basis for processing personal data
The personal data we process
Sources of data
Recipients of personal data
International Transfers
Data retention period
Automatic decision-making and profiling
Data subject’s rights
Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority
Who owns Lobster?
What if my profile contains false or incomplete information?
How can I have my information removed from Lobster?
What kind of products does Lobster offer?
How can I contact Lobster?

What is Lobster?

We are a startup with a goal to make lobbying more transparent and accessible for everyone. We believe that the quality of public decision making improves, when all the different parties can have their opinions heard. The world needs more lobbying.

In order to reach our goal, we provide processes, data, and tools for lobbyists. A key part of our data is a collection of policymakers for each market we operate in. We endeavour to explain which organisations lobbyists need to reach out to and who are the key politicians, officials in those organisations.

The company behind Lobster is Lobster.ist Oy, a Helsinki-based limited liability company.

Legal basis for processing personal data

We process personal data to provide our clients with a comprehensive lobbying tool that identifies relevant policymakers and facilitates systematic tracking of advocacy processes. Offering up-to-date information on policymakers as a part of the tool fulfils the proportionality and public interest requirements of section 4, paragraph 1, point 1 of the Finnish Data Protection Act.

The full privacy policy for data provided by Lobster can be found at https://lobster.ist/privacy_policy_masterdata.html

The personal data we process

We process information related to the data subject’s activities in public bodies, business life, third sector and other comparable organisations.

The personal data comprises the data subject’s name and contact details, information about their position, metadata and content of their public social network profiles, relevant information on the organisation(s) they are associated with, biographical information as published by the data subject, and other information relevant to activities in the position that led to the data subject being included in the system.

Sources of data

All data contained in Lobster has been collected from public sources.

Recipients of personal data

We share the personal data added to our system with the following entities: Our clients, with whom we have agreements that include data protection clauses.

Public authorities when complying with a court order or for other valid cause provided by the General Data Protection Regulation.

Service providers that we use for the technical realisation of our services. Service providers are compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation either directly, through an adequacy decision from the European Commission, or by Standard Contractual Clauses.

International Transfers

Lobster.ist only stores, transfers or processes personal data only in the European Economic Area, Andorra, Switzerland and the UK. All of which are either regulated by GDPR or deemed to have adequate level of data protection by the European Union. https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/international-dimension-data-protection/adequacy-decisions_en

Data retention period

The profile of a data subject will be removed within six months of the data subject ceasing to hold the position that was the basis of inclusion in the system, if the data subject does not acquire a further position that is a basis for inclusion.

Automatic decision-making and profiling

Personal data contained in Lobster is not used for automated decision-making or profiling.

Data subject’s rights

The data subject has the right to

right to be informed of data processing

access the information that has been collected and processed

right to rectification of erroneous information

right to erasure of personal data

right to restriction of data processing

right to object to processing of their personal data

right to transfer their data to another system

The data subject can exercise these rights by contacting Lobster by e-mail through gdpr@lobster.ist

Regarding the right to access their personal data, all data subjects have received an e-mail with a direct access link to the data subject’s profile. The data is also available for portability via the access link.

Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority

The supervisory authority with jurisdiction over Lobster is the Data Protection Ombudsman.

The data subject can lodge a complaint by following instructions at https://tietosuoja.fi/en/notification-to-the-data-protection-ombudsman.

Who owns Lobster?

Lobster is owned and controlled by its founding team who all hold positions at the company. A small minority of the company is owned by early investors with backgrounds in politics and public affairs. We don’t have any professional investors, funds, or companies connected to lobbying behind us.

What if my profile contains false or incomplete information?

Please contact us and we’ll be happy to make the necessary corrections.

How can I have my information removed from Lobster?

We automatically remove profiles of people who are no longer considered as policymakers. However, if you feel like we’ve made a mistake and your information should be removed, please contact us at gdpr@lobster.ist.

What kind of products does Lobster offer?

Our product, Lobster, contains up-to-date information on 5000+ profiles of policymakers in Finland, as well as soon many more in Brussels, Sweden, and Norway. Our customers follow relevant profiles and are notified of any changes. The kind of stakeholders covered varies from members of parliament and ministers, including their assistant and advisors, public officers, top management of industry associations and public companies as well as media representatives, such as editors-in-chief and key industry journalists.

Lobster also allows our customers to automatically follow Finnish legislative processes and Twitter discussions of selected keywords limited to Lobster stakeholders.

In addition, Lobster offers a process and a comprehensive set of collaboration tools for lobbying teams. Our customers can plan lobbying projects, set goals, keep track of stakeholder meetings and maintain a lobbying registry.

How can I contact Lobster?

The best way to contact us regarding your data by emailing us at gdpr@lobster.ist – We do our best to reply promptly.