Email and the Law

Responsibilities for Data in Email Marketing

There is a certain degree of confusion as to the comparative responsibilities of data controllers (controllers) and data processors (processors). If you have data, you must have a controller. To put it simply, it is their responsibility if it all goes wrong. They have a distinct legal responsibility. Processors work under controllers. If they make … READ MORE »

Data Protection Regulation Vote

I was wrong. I thought that the vote on the amendment to the proposed Data Protection Regulations put forward by the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Justice and Home Affairs Committee (LIBE), fronted by MEP J. Albrecht, would be close. However, the MEPs voted 621 to 10 in favour. The amendment has been heavily criticised, not … READ MORE »

Always Look On The Bright Side

You can normally find something positive to say when there are legislative changes for email marketing. However, you know you are struggling a bit when the best you can come up with is that it is not as bad as we feared. Earlier this month the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of the less … READ MORE »

Consenting Adults

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) recent Guidance told us that the next big hurdle for bulk email marketing will be consent. It warned us to take care with regards to time limits of consent, but were irritatingly unspecific. The ICO has highlighted four particular areas where time limits on consent will be of concern: 1. … READ MORE »

Protect Yourself

We commented recently on here about the new ICO Guidance document¹ and have suggested that it is compulsory reading for anyone engaged in bulk email marketing. Most of its thrust is towards consent and it is reasonable to conclude that this signifies tighter control, and a restricted view, on what consent constitutes. We cannot say … READ MORE »

Essential Reading For Those In Email Marketing

Every now and again the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issues advice on specific matters. Almost always it has been well worded, easy to read, devoid of too much superfluous information and, most importantly, useful. The ICO has recently issued a booklet giving guidance on direct marketing. Should I suggest that it is one of their … READ MORE »

Learning from Others’ Mistakes

Learning from your mistakes is a good policy. Learning from someone else’s mistakes is better, if only from a cost point of view. Bulk e-mail marketing is fraught enough without the added financial burden when you get it wrong. It is refreshing therefore when a company as big as Tesco, and you don’t get much … READ MORE »

Email marketing: back to basics

As I write e-mail marketing articles I subscribe to dozens of lists and it can be an effort to read through them. Last year I made notes about which I liked and why. 1. Conform to the law: Customers are becoming more sophisticated and recognise those companies which ignore the requirements of the law. I … READ MORE »

Just what we wanted

Just what we wanted Email marketing is beset with rules and regulations, some of which are precise and easy to understand. We all know when an unsubscribe button must be included and if anyone fails to conform to this requirement they have only themselves to blame. In general most legislation is written in clear English, … READ MORE »

Reasons to be reasonable

We have mentioned before that if you are running a competition with prizes in your email marketing campaign then you should take extreme care. Quite apart from falling foul of the complex betting, gaming and lotteries legislation, which is all too easy to do, there is the added problem of being fair. The word fair … READ MORE »

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