Data, Countries & GDPR

Here you'll learn where Leadscraper gets its data, which countries the tool works in, and how your data and your leads' data are handled. If you want to understand why Leadscraper works differently from a purchased lead list, you're in the right place.

Quick Summary

• Leadscraper is not a ready-made database but a live researcher. Every search is a fresh investigation in the current web and in German-language directories.
• Data sources are exclusively publicly accessible information: company websites, legal notices (Impressum), industry directories, association and chamber registers, the commercial register, and open web search.
• Strongest market: DACH — Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. That's where the curated sources sit.
• GDPR: EU servers, only public data, your learning history is isolated per account and deletable at any time. You can export all your data as a file.

Where the Data Comes From

Many tools sell you an extract from a massive, pre-collected database. Those records are often months old, and you get whatever happens to be in there. Leadscraper takes the opposite approach: for every search, the tool researches live — at the moment of the request, it accesses current, publicly available sources.

Specifically, Leadscraper draws from three types of sources:

1. The Open Web

Via a Google-based search API, Leadscraper searches the open web for matching companies — targeted by industry, region, and business model. This is the broad foundation from which research starts.

2. Industry Directories, Associations, and Registers

This is the core that makes Leadscraper so deep in the German-speaking market. Behind the tool sits a curated library of industry-specific sources — association member lists, chambers, certification registers, and specialist directories. A few examples:

• WLW and Kompass as broad industry directories
• ZVEH for the electrical trade
• VDMA for mechanical engineering
• Demeter and Bioland for organically certified businesses
• Industry-specific registers for doctors, care homes, and other fields

These sources aren't found in any generic database — and that's exactly where the difference lies. If you're searching for "organic bakeries" or "guild electricians in NRW", Leadscraper knows which association or register those businesses are listed in, and searches there directly.

3. Website Hydration (the Depth of Detail)

Once a company is identified as a candidate, Leadscraper loads its website and reads the details in a structured way — legal notice (Impressum), contact and about pages, team pages. For German companies, commercial register queries are added to verify legal form, year of founding, and parent company. This is how the fields you see in a lead are built: contact person, role, email, phone, company size, and more.

Traceability: Source per Data Point

Leadscraper stores for every individual field where it came from (provenance) — whether from the legal notice, the commercial register, a team page, or web search. For emails, you can also see whether the address was directly sourced or inferred from a pattern (including confidence score). You don't have to trust any data point blindly — you can trace it back to its source.

More about how a lead is structured and evaluated can be found in "How a Lead Is Scored (Scores & Quality)".

Think First, Then Search, Then Evaluate

To make clear why the data fits and doesn't just "vaguely belong to the industry": Leadscraper doesn't search blindly for keywords. Every search runs in three steps:

1. Plan. The tool first thinks about where the right companies can be found — which associations, which registers, which search strategy. You can watch this plan run live ("Goal", "Strategy", "Reasoning", "Curated Source").
2. Search. Only then does the actual research start across the three source types above.
3. Evaluate. Every found candidate is checked individually: Does the industry match? The region? The size? The contact person's role? Only what truly fits ends up with you.

The result: per search, exactly the right leads rather than a long list you have to sift through yourself.

Which Countries Does Leadscraper Work In?

Leadscraper is designed for the German-speaking region and is strongest there:

• Germany (DE) — including all 16 federal states as region filters
• Austria (AT)
• Switzerland (CH)

The reason is the curated source library: the associations, chambers, certification registers, and commercial register that give Leadscraper its depth are DACH-specific. That's exactly the advantage over generic databases.

You can set regions as narrow or as broad as you like — from "Germany" to "Bavaria" or "NRW" down to a single city. One tip: a location alone (e.g., just "Hamburg") isn't a complete search — always combine it with a company type, like "tax advisors Hamburg".

If your target market is outside DACH, write to us via the chat bottom right — we'll look at your use case.

GDPR & Data Protection

Data protection here isn't an afterthought — it's built into the architecture. Three points matter:

Only Publicly Accessible Data

Leadscraper collects exclusively information that is already public — from legal notices, company websites, industry directories, association lists, and the commercial register. There is no access to private or purchased personal data pools. That's also why our customers typically pass the review by their data protection officers without issues.

Your Data Belongs to You — and Is Isolated

Leadscraper remembers which leads you like and which you don't (your ratings, preferences, and rejection reasons). This learning memory is strictly isolated per account — no other user sees it. The legal basis is contract performance (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). The same applies to the specific leads delivered to you: they are assigned to your account.

Right to deletion: Both your learning memory and your delivered leads can be deleted on request. If an account is deleted, your entire data tree is fully removed (hard delete).

Anonymous Facts vs. Personal Data

Leadscraper learns on two levels, and they are cleanly separated:

• Your personal memory (preferences, ratings) — personal data, assigned to you, deletable.
• General company and domain facts (e.g., typical email patterns of a domain, industry classification) — anonymous and purely company-related, without names or personal contact details. This layer contains no personal data and therefore is not subject to the right to deletion.

Servers in the EU

The data is stored on servers within the EU.

Retention of Logs

Internal technical logs (e.g., which research steps ran) are searchable for around 90 days and are then pseudonymized and archived.

Exporting Your Data

You can request a complete export of all your data at any time. You'll receive a structured file (JSON) with your account data, your delivered leads, your ratings, and your learning memory. Security-relevant internal keys (e.g., encrypted API keys) are intentionally excluded from the export.

This is separate from the normal lead export for day-to-day work: accepted leads can be downloaded as CSV or Excel (XLSX) — with company, profile, industry, city, company email, company phone, contact person, role, email, and email source. Details in "Exporting Leads".

How to Reach Out to Leads Compliantly

Leadscraper delivers clean, publicly documented contact data — the compliant outreach is then up to you. A few ground rules for B2B cold outreach in the DACH region:

• B2B by email: Contact is only permitted under narrow conditions (legitimate interest, clear relevance of your offer to the recipient's business). Target specifically, don't spray broadly.
• Phone outreach in B2B: Only with presumed consent — meaning your offer clearly relates to the company's business.
• Transparency: Make clear who you are and how you got the contact. Offer a simple opt-out in every email.
• This is exactly Leadscraper's strength: Because the tool checks per lead whether the industry, size, and role genuinely fit, you're more likely to reach recipients with a real connection to your offer — the basis for compliant B2B outreach.

Note: This is guidance, not legal advice. If in doubt, clarify your specific outreach strategy with your data protection officer or legal counsel.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Leadscraper a purchased lead list or a database?
No. Leadscraper is a live researcher. Every search is a fresh investigation in the current web and in German-language directories — not output from an old, pre-collected data pool.

How do I know if a data point is correct?
Every field carries its source (e.g., legal notice, commercial register, team page). For emails, you can see whether they were directly found or inferred from a pattern.

Does Leadscraper work outside of DACH?
The tool is built for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland — that's where the curated sources are. For other markets, write to us via the chat bottom right.

Can I have my stored data deleted?
Yes. Your learning memory and your delivered leads can be deleted on request; when an account is deleted, everything is fully removed.

Is the data stored in the EU?
Yes, the servers are within the EU.

Can I get a copy of all my data?
Yes, through the complete data export you receive a structured JSON file with account data, leads, ratings, and learning memory.

Updated on: 15/06/2026