TL;DR
Channel 5 handed over its subscribers' email addresses to Hunter Biden to promote his memecoin, a move data privacy experts say may be illegal.
Channel 5, the YouTube channel hosted by Andrew Callaghan, often interviews Hunter Biden. Recently, Hunter launched his own memecoin (a type of cryptocurrency) and asked the channel for its subscriber email list. The channel complied, sending a simple CSV file.
Data privacy experts told 404 Media that this practice could be illegal in some places. Email addresses are private information, and sharing them without consent is a clear privacy breach.
Trading users for access?
Callaghan and Hunter got close through interviews, so when Hunter asked to use the mailing list, the channel may have felt obliged or saw a chance to expand its audience. But this wasn't just sharing a fan count; it was actual user data.
Subscribers never expected their emails to be used for promoting a cryptocurrency. This case serves as a cautionary tale about how user data should be protected.
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