In May, the question arose over what legal basis companies could use for certain processing of customer data in the future. Many companies decided to proceed by asking their entire database of customers for consent – by inviting them to respond to an email.
We advised our clients that this was not necessarily the best approach and suggested that they had alternative legal basis such as legitimate interest that could be relied upon and that it would be more productive for companies to ask their customers if they would like to opt out of having their data processed in this way.
In the former, companies found that no more than 7% of respondents gave their consent – wiping out 93% of their database for future marketing. Whereas, with the companies we advised, they found that 2% opted out – so 98% of customers allowed their data to be used by the company going forward.
