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Like millions of others, I've received a marketing email from Microsoft GitHub, "You have free access to GitHub Copilot" (announcement).

I didn't find a way to unsubscribe: the unsubscribe link only leads to a generic option in a SendGrid mailing list to opt out from "GitHub Transactional: Transactional emails from GitHub about products and accounts"; other opt-outs available are "Product News" and "GitHub Education".

Needless to say, I never consented to LLM marketing or any exposure to LLM products in the first place.

How do I exercise my GDPR rights to object? There are multiple rights but some are easier than others to exercise, so I want to focus on those which are most obviously legally enforceable in this case.

I currently have this draft, to be sent to [email protected] according to the section "Your Privacy Rights" of their privacy policy:

Dear GitHub, I wish to exercise my rights under art. 15 of the GDPR to ask any relevant information on what led to my receipt of an email "You have free access to GitHub Copilot" (Message-ID: <@geopod-ismtpd-24>; Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2024 21:01:27 +0000).

For any data involved in said email and the decision it announces, please include information on:

  • its sources;
  • how long it's kept;
  • any other purposes it's used for;
  • how to object to said uses;
  • what uses or processes happen outside the EU/EEA;
  • any third parties involved.

I never consented to the sending of such marketing messages, and if any such consent was ever conveyed to you I hereby revoke it; allowing "transactional emails" shall not be construed as consent from me for such marketing emails.

I further object to the usage of automated decision-making processes to enlist my account for LLM products.

Yours truly,

"Hilariously", emailing [email protected] triggers an immediate response that:

IMPORTANT: Support Ticket Declined

We now require that new support requests be created using our Support website: https://support.github.com

Upon opening a form on that website, I'm immediately served a Copilot chatbot.

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  • One thing you may want to reference while writing such a letter is the nightmare letter which is designed for data controllers to check they are able to fullfill an SAR. It is worth noting GDPR SARs can be made to any member of an organisation.
    – User65535
    Commented Dec 19, 2024 at 8:36
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    The unsubscribe link unsubscribed me on clicking, what was the issue there? Yes, it unsubscribed me from "Transactional emails from GitHub about products and accounts", so that seems to be the clever name they chose for their marketing emails, but whatever, it does seem to unsubscribe and works with a single click.
    – terdon
    Commented Dec 19, 2024 at 9:46
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    SendGrid is just a tool to track what happens to an email after it is sent for marketing purposes. They likely just changed how they send these types of emails.
    – Joe W
    Commented Dec 19, 2024 at 13:51
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    It's not "needless to say" that you never consented to this communication, since people often click through terms of service and end-user licence agreements without carefully reading them. Do you, in fact, have a GitHub account or a Microsoft account, or have you ever agreed to a Microsoft software licence? If so, did you check the terms to see whether they required you to consent to receive marketing e-mails such as this? If they did require such consent, did you subsequently notify them that you were withdrawing it?
    – Psychonaut
    Commented Dec 19, 2024 at 15:04
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    If you decide not to unsubscribe from the options when you deliberately went to a page designed primarily and clearly to give you an opportunity to do so, you may be on weaker ground going forward. That will not make up for the past, but it may weaken any claim you make in future if you avoided the opportunity to minimise the continuing damage.
    – Henry
    Commented Dec 19, 2024 at 17:21

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