This Content Policy sets out what data Hunter holds, who may use it and for what purposes, what uses are prohibited, and the obligations that apply to Hunter and to everyone who uses our platform. Read this alongside our How Hunter Sources and Infers Data page and our How Hunter Uses AI page.
1. What data Hunter holds
Hunter’s database contains professional contact information. We limit the categories of data we hold to those necessary for B2B professional contact purposes. Hunter’s Profile Database does not hold, and Hunter’s collection and inference systems do not generate, data outside these categories. Data that Hunter users independently import into their own leads lists is subject to the user’s own data controller obligations, not to the restrictions on Hunter’s Profile Database.
| Data category | Description and scope |
|---|---|
| Professional email addresses | Email addresses associated with a professional domain. We do not hold personal email addresses on consumer domains (e.g. gmail.com, outlook.com). |
| Full name | First and last name as publicly associated with the individual’s professional role. |
| Job title | Professional title as publicly stated by the individual or their employer. |
| Employer / company name | The organization the individual is professionally associated with. |
| Company domain | The professional domain used as the basis for pattern analysis. |
| LinkedIn profile URL | Where publicly available and linked to the individual’s professional profile. |
| Phone number | Where directly and explicitly published on a public professional page. We do not infer or generate phone numbers. |
| Record metadata | Source URL and crawl date (for every record, from either the scraped source or the NLP context page); verification date (where an SMTP verification has been performed); email type label: every record is labeled as either public (observed on a webpage) or inferred (algorithmically generated). |
2. Hunter’s role as data controller
Hunter is an independent data controller of all personal data in its database. Hunter and any user who further processes that data are independent controllers in their respective spheres. Hunter is responsible for what happens within its platform and database; users are responsible for what they do with the data they receive.
3. Permitted uses
Data accessed through Hunter may be used for the following purposes:
- B2B outreach and prospecting: identifying and contacting relevant professional contacts at target companies for legitimate business purposes, sales, marketing, partnership, or recruitment, where the individual is being contacted in their professional capacity.
- CRM enrichment: verifying or enriching a company’s existing B2B contact database, where the individuals are professional contacts with whom a business relationship is sought or maintained.
- Internal research and analysis: internal analysis of company-level contact patterns for legitimate business intelligence purposes. This does not extend to bulk export of individual-level personal data for redistribution, resale, or use outside the permitted purposes in this section.
- API integration and testing: technical integration and testing of the API using test accounts and non-production data environments.
4. Prohibited uses
The following uses are prohibited under Hunter’s Terms of Service and, in many cases, applicable law. Users engaging in prohibited uses will have their accounts suspended or terminated. Serious violations may be reported to competent authorities or lead to civil or criminal referral.
| Category | Prohibited activity | Why this matters |
|---|---|---|
| Spam and bulk unsolicited email | Sending unsolicited bulk commercial email using Hunter data, in violation of CAN-SPAM, CASL, the EU ePrivacy Directive, or equivalent applicable law. Note: EU member states vary in their B2B email marketing rules. Some (e.g. Germany) require opt-in for B2B. Users are responsible for compliance with the law of the jurisdiction they are contacting. | Direct legal violation. Hunter data must not be used as a mass-spray list. |
| Harassment and harm | Contacting individuals in a harassing, threatening, or abusive manner; facilitating stalking, doxing, or targeted harassment campaigns; sharing Hunter data in contexts designed to expose individuals to harm, ridicule, or unwanted public attention. | Criminal liability in many jurisdictions. Incompatible with any legitimate B2B purpose. |
| Illegal data processing | Processing Hunter data in violation of applicable data protection law; combining Hunter data with special category data to build legally non-compliant profiles; sharing or reselling Hunter data to third parties without prior written authorization from Hunter. | Users are independent data controllers. |
| Political campaigning | Using Hunter data for political campaigning, voter outreach, or micro-targeting based on inferred political opinions. Hunter data must not be used to build voter contact lists or to target individuals based on political affiliation. | GDPR Art. 9 treats political opinions as special category data. Regulatory scrutiny in this area is intense. |
| Credential abuse | Using Hunter-sourced email addresses for credential stuffing, phishing, account compromise, or social engineering attacks. | Criminal conduct. Will be referred to law enforcement. |
| Consumer contact | Contacting individuals as private consumers rather than in a professional B2B context. Hunter’s database is limited to professional contact data and must not be used for B2C marketing. | Hunter data is limited to professional context. Private individuals contacted as consumers have different legal protections. |
| Automated mass sequences without relevance | Using Hunter data as the sole input to automated mass outreach sequences with no individualized relevance or genuine business purpose, i.e. spam with a company name attached. | Functionally indistinguishable from spam. Breaches ePrivacy laws in many jurisdictions. |
5. User obligations as independent data controllers
When a Hunter user accesses, exports, or uses contact data from our platform, they are acting as an independent data controller in respect of their own processing activities. Hunter’s compliance with its own obligations does not discharge users from theirs. As an independent data controller, Hunter users are responsible for:
- Lawful basis: establishing their own lawful basis for processing the contact data they obtain from Hunter.
- Transparency to contacts: under Article 14 GDPR, when a user first contacts an individual using Hunter data, they should be prepared to identify the source of the contact information if asked.
- Opt-out and suppression: honoring unsubscribe and opt-out requests promptly and maintaining their own suppression lists to prevent repeat contact with individuals who have declined outreach.
- Data minimization: not storing data beyond what is needed for the stated purpose.
- Security: implementing appropriate technical and organizational security measures for any Hunter data stored or further processed.
6. Data quality standards
- Accuracy at entry: all records undergo SMTP verification before entering the active database.
- Ongoing re-verification: records are periodically re-verified on a rolling basis. Records failing re-verification are reviewed for removal.
- Source integrity: source URLs for collected records are stored and subject to periodic validation.
- Complaint-driven correction: where a data subject or a third party identifies an inaccurate record, we investigate and correct or remove as appropriate.
- Suppression list integrity: suppression entries are permanent and block both re-collection and re-generation. They are not time-limited.
7. Data breach notification
In the event of a personal data breach affecting data in Hunter’s database, we will act in accordance with Articles 33 and 34 GDPR:
- Supervisory authority notification: we will notify our lead supervisory authority within 72 hours of becoming aware of a breach that poses a risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons.
- Data subject notification: where a breach is likely to result in a high risk to individuals, we will communicate this to affected data subjects directly, or via a prominent public notice on our website.
- User notification: where a breach affects data accessed by Hunter users, we will notify affected users promptly so they can take appropriate steps within their own systems.
If you believe that a security incident involving Hunter’s database has caused you harm, contact privacy@hunter.io.
8. Third-party data removal requests
Hunter receives requests from organizations and individuals seeking removal of data on behalf of third parties. Our policy:
- Verified third-party requests: we honor removal requests submitted by authorized representatives, provided the request is accompanied by a signed declaration of authority identifying the specific individuals concerned and confirming the representative’s authority to act on their behalf.
- Organizational bulk requests: requests by companies seeking removal of all employees’ professional contact data are assessed separately from individual data subject rights requests. We recognize that organizations have an interest in managing their staff’s professional contact exposure. These requests are processed on a case-by-case basis.
- Verification procedure: we require documentary confirmation of authority from the requesting representative. We do not proactively contact the data subject to verify authorization, as this could itself constitute unwanted contact, particularly where the individual has sought removal precisely to avoid contact.
- Manipulation filter: we do not accept removal requests that lack a verifiable connection to the individuals concerned, or that appear to be submitted for competitive rather than rights-protection purposes.
9. Reporting a violation or harm
If you are aware of a Hunter user engaging in a prohibited use, including spam, harassment, illegal data processing, or credential abuse, report it to privacy@hunter.io, including as much detail as possible about the nature of the violation and any supporting evidence. We investigate all credible reports and take enforcement action where warranted.
Reporting harm connected to your data: if you are a data subject who believes that contact data about you has been used in a way that has caused you harm, including spam campaigns, phishing attempts, or account compromise attempts that you believe are connected to your data appearing in Hunter’s database, please contact privacy@hunter.io. We will investigate the provenance of your record, confirm its current status in our database, and take appropriate action, including referral to law enforcement where evidence of criminal misuse exists.
10. Sensitive domains
Our systems utilize a curated exclusion list to prevent the generation of inferred addresses for organizations where domain membership might disclose protected characteristics. This framework is primarily focused on EU-based entities and encompasses five high-protection categories: religious organizations, political entities, trade unions, recovery or identity-centric patient groups, and LGBTQ+ identity associations.
11. Policy updates
This Content Policy is reviewed and updated to reflect changes in our data processing practices, applicable law, and regulatory guidance. Material changes will be announced on our website and, where practicable, communicated directly to active account holders. The effective date of the current version is shown below.
Questions: privacy@hunter.io · Effective date: August 2026 · Version 1.0
