Apollo Data Handling

Overview

Data management, compliance, and governance for Apollo.io contact data. Apollo's database contains 275M+ contacts with PII (emails, phones, LinkedIn profiles). This covers GDPR subject access/erasure, data retention, field-level encryption, and audit logging — using the real Apollo Contacts API endpoints.

Prerequisites

• Apollo master API key (contacts/delete requires master key)
• Node.js 18+

Instructions

Step 1: GDPR Subject Access Request (SAR)

Find all data Apollo has on a person and export it.

// src/data/gdpr.ts
import axios from 'axios';

const client = axios.create({
  baseURL: 'https://api.apollo.io/api/v1',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json', 'x-api-key': process.env.APOLLO_API_KEY! },
});

interface SubjectAccessReport {
  email: string;
  dataFound: boolean;
  crmContact?: Record<string, any>;
  apolloDatabaseMatch?: Record<string, any>;
  activeSequences: string[];
  exportedAt: string;
}

export async function handleSAR(email: string): Promise<SubjectAccessReport> {
  const report: SubjectAccessReport = {
    email, dataFound: false, activeSequences: [],
    exportedAt: new Date().toISOString(),
  };

  // 1. Search your CRM contacts (contacts you've saved)
  const { data: crmData } = await client.post('/contacts/search', {
    q_keywords: email,
    per_page: 1,
  });

  if (crmData.contacts?.length > 0) {
    const c = crmData.contacts[0];
    report.dataFound = true;
    report.crmContact = {
      id: c.id, name: c.name, email: c.email, title: c.title,
      phone: c.phone_numbers, organization: c.organization_name,
      city: c.city, state: c.state, country: c.country,
      createdAt: c.created_at, updatedAt: c.updated_at,
      contactStage: c.contact_stage_id,
      labels: c.label_ids,
    };
    report.activeSequences = c.emailer_campaign_ids ?? [];
  }

  // 2. Check Apollo's database (enrichment data)
  try {
    const { data: enrichData } = await client.post('/people/match', { email });
    if (enrichData.person) {
      report.dataFound = true;
      report.apolloDatabaseMatch = {
        name: enrichData.person.name,
        title: enrichData.person.title,
        seniority: enrichData.person.seniority,
        city: enrichData.person.city,
        linkedinUrl: enrichData.person.linkedin_url,
        organization: enrichData.person.organization?.name,
      };
    }
  } catch { /* person not found in Apollo DB */ }

  return report;
}

Step 2: Right to Erasure (Delete)

export async function handleErasure(email: string): Promise<{
  email: string; erased: boolean; sequencesRemoved: number;
}> {
  // 1. Find the CRM contact
  const { data } = await client.post('/contacts/search', {
    q_keywords: email, per_page: 1,
  });

  const contact = data.contacts?.[0];
  if (!contact) return { email, erased: false, sequencesRemoved: 0 };

  // 2. Remove from all sequences first
  let sequencesRemoved = 0;
  const sequenceRemovalFailures: string[] = [];
  for (const seqId of contact.emailer_campaign_ids ?? []) {
    try {
      await client.post('/emailer_campaigns/remove_or_stop_contact_ids', {
        emailer_campaign_id: seqId,
        contact_ids: [contact.id],
      });
      sequencesRemoved++;
    } catch (err: any) {
      // Do not delete while the contact may still receive outreach.
      sequenceRemovalFailures.push(seqId);
    }
  }

  if (sequenceRemovalFailures.length > 0) {
    throw new Error(`Erasure paused: removal failed for ${sequenceRemovalFailures.length} sequence(s)`);
  }

  // 3. Delete the contact from your CRM (requires master key)
  await client.delete(`/contacts/${contact.id}`);

  return { email, erased: true, sequencesRemoved };
}

Step 3: Data Retention Policy

// src/data/retention.ts
interface RetentionPolicy {
  maxAgeDays: number;
  inactiveThresholdDays: number;
  protectedLabels: string[];  // label IDs to never auto-delete
}

export async function enforceRetention(policy: RetentionPolicy) {
  const cutoff = new Date();
  cutoff.setDate(cutoff.getDate() - policy.maxAgeDays);

  // Search for old contacts
  const { data } = await client.post('/contacts/search', {
    sort_by_field: 'contact_created_at',
    sort_ascending: true,
    per_page: 100,
  });

  const candidates = data.contacts.filter((c: any) => {
    if (new Date(c.created_at) > cutoff) return false;
    // Skip contacts with protected labels
    const labels = c.label_ids ?? [];
    return !policy.protectedLabels.some((l) => labels.includes(l));
  });

  console.log(`Found ${candidates.length} contacts past ${policy.maxAgeDays}-day retention`);

  let deleted = 0;
  for (const contact of candidates) {
    try {
      await client.delete(`/contacts/${contact.id}`);
      deleted++;
    } catch (err: any) {
      console.error(`Failed to delete ${contact.name}: ${err.message}`);
    }
  }

  return { evaluated: data.contacts.length, deleted };
}

Step 4: Field-Level Encryption for Local Storage

// src/data/encryption.ts
import crypto from 'crypto';

const KEY = Buffer.from(process.env.APOLLO_ENCRYPTION_KEY!, 'hex');  // 32 bytes
const ALGO = 'aes-256-gcm';

export function encrypt(plaintext: string): string {
  const iv = crypto.randomBytes(16);
  const cipher = crypto.createCipheriv(ALGO, KEY, iv);
  let enc = cipher.update(plaintext, 'utf8', 'hex');
  enc += cipher.final('hex');
  return `${iv.toString('hex')}:${cipher.getAuthTag().toString('hex')}:${enc}`;
}

export function decrypt(ciphertext: string): string {
  const [ivHex, tagHex, enc] = ciphertext.split(':');
  const decipher = crypto.createDecipheriv(ALGO, KEY, Buffer.from(ivHex, 'hex'));
  decipher.setAuthTag(Buffer.from(tagHex, 'hex'));
  let dec = decipher.update(enc, 'hex', 'utf8');
  dec += decipher.final('utf8');
  return dec;
}

// Encrypt PII before storing Apollo data locally
export function encryptContactPII(contact: any) {
  return {
    ...contact,
    email: contact.email ? encrypt(contact.email) : null,
    phone: contact.phone ? encrypt(contact.phone) : null,
    linkedin_url: contact.linkedin_url ? encrypt(contact.linkedin_url) : null,
    name: contact.name,  // keep searchable
  };
}

Step 5: Audit Logging

// src/data/audit-log.ts
interface AuditEntry {
  timestamp: string;
  action: 'search' | 'enrich' | 'export' | 'delete' | 'sar' | 'erasure';
  userId: string;
  contactId?: string;
  email?: string;
  detail: string;
}

export function logAudit(entry: Omit<AuditEntry, 'timestamp'>) {
  const full: AuditEntry = { ...entry, timestamp: new Date().toISOString() };
  // In production: write to database or cloud logging
  console.log(`[AUDIT] ${full.action} by ${full.userId}: ${full.detail}`);
}

// Usage:
// logAudit({ action: 'erasure', userId: 'privacy@co.com', email: 'user@ex.com',
//   detail: 'GDPR erasure: contact deleted, removed from 2 sequences' });

Output

• GDPR Subject Access Request handler searching CRM contacts + Apollo database
• Right to Erasure handler: remove from sequences then delete contact
• Retention policy enforcer with age-based cleanup and label protection
• AES-256-GCM field-level encryption for locally stored PII
• Audit log capturing every data operation with user attribution

Examples

For a verified subject-access and erasure request, authenticate the requester through the organization’s privacy process, create a case ID, and run the SAR against only the authorized contact record. Store the export in the approved restricted location and log its retention deadline without copying raw PII to CI or chat. For erasure, first remove the record from every active sequence; if any removal fails, leave the CRM record intact, record the failed sequence IDs in the case system, and escalate for manual completion. Delete only after all sequence removals succeed, then retain the minimal audit receipt required by the organization’s policy.

Error Handling

Issue	Resolution
403 on delete	Contact deletion requires master API key
Contact in active sequence	Remove from sequence before deleting
Encryption key lost	Use a KMS (GCP KMS, AWS KMS) with key versioning
Audit log gaps	Write to durable store before processing, not after

Resources

• Search for Contacts
• Update Contact Status in Sequence
• Apollo Privacy Policy
• GDPR Official Text

Next Steps

Proceed to apollo-enterprise-rbac for access control.