Journalist & Media Contact Data Notice

Last updated: July 10, 2026

Barista is a PR intelligence platform used by PR agencies, freelancers and in-house communications teams. To help our customers reach the right journalists with relevant stories, we maintain a database of professional information about journalists, editors, podcast hosts and other media contacts. If you work in the media, this notice explains what we hold about you, where it comes from, and the choices you have.

What we collect

Only professional information, in your public, working capacity:

  • Name, outlet, role and beat
  • Business email address and business phone number where publicly listed
  • Professional social media handles
  • Published work (bylines, episodes, coverage areas)

We do not collect information about your private life, home address, family, or anything in the UK GDPR's special categories. We do not collect data about anyone under 18.

Where it comes from

Publicly available sources: outlet staff pages and mastheads, published articles and bylines, professional profiles, podcast directories, and contact details you have made public for professional purposes. We do not access non-public sources.

Separately, our customers may upload their own contact lists to their private workspaces. That data belongs to the customer, stays within their workspace, and is not added to our shared database.

Why, and our lawful basis

We process this data to help PR professionals identify relevant journalists and contact them with better-targeted, more relevant pitches. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR): media databases are a long-established part of how journalists and sources find each other, and we have assessed that this processing falls within the reasonable expectations of media professionals who publish their contact details for exactly this purpose. A copy of our assessment is available on request.

Who can see it

Our database is not public. It is available only to Barista customers — identified organisations bound by terms that prohibit spam and require lawful use. We use service providers (hosting, AI processing, email) to operate the platform; the current list is in Annex 3 of our DPA.

How long we keep it

We keep records only while they are current and relevant. Records that go stale (for example, when someone leaves the industry) are refreshed or removed.

Your rights and choices

You have the right to access, correct or delete the information we hold about you, to object to the processing, and to restrict it. If you'd like to be removed from our database, email tech@getbarista.ai— we'll action removal, add you to a suppression list so you aren't re-added, and confirm within one month.

You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk), though we'd appreciate the chance to resolve any concern directly first.

Contact

Barista, Inc. — tech@getbarista.ai