New Data Protection legislation

[annew]

As a small mail order nursery sending out lists by post and email to customers who have requested the list previously, I am finding it extraordinarily difficult to discover whether I need to get a positive response from all 600+ addresses on my list that they want to continue receiving it after 25 May (the date the new legislation comes into force), or whether stating our use of their data, and their right to unsubscribe and asking them to let me know if they do not want to continue is sufficient.
I have been sitting waiting for an answer on the 'helpline' for an awful long time and am not sure I can afford to lose any more brain cells due to being forced to listen to the few bars of muzak on an endless loop. I think the whole purpose of the 'music' is to limit the time anyone can bear to sit and wait for an answering human.
Is there anyone out there that can advise me (for free) ?

[ArdfearnAli]

Hello Ann,
              Not sure but I have had a lot of emails from trade suppliers etc asking me to agree to them continuing to send info. Most have sent a global email to all customers and it does look like if you don't respond by 25th they are legally obliged to remove you from their email list until you contact them. I am not sure about paper catalogues and info by post? but I think you have to have the customers consent to send marketing emails. We have an online catalogue and website but do not produce a paper catalogue or send marketing info so I am assuming it doesn't apply to our nursery I hope!

Hope you find out soon and it doesn't cause too many problems. As always its ok for large companies but it is very difficult for the smaller ones.

Alasdair

[annew]

Thanks, Alasdair.

[Alan_b]

I think I might be on your list, Anne.  If so you are very welcome to continue to send me emails.

[Neil]

Anne no you don't need to, as they have already given their consent to receive them if you want to use their information for other purposes that is when you will need to get their constant. 

https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1551/direct-marketing-checklist.pdf   

[annew]

Hi Neil,
Thank you, but the difficult part seems to be 'we offered them an opt-out when they gave their details'.
When people asked to be put on my mailing list, I didn't tell them how to opt out. I think this may exclude me from citing the 'soft opt-in'.

[Ben Candlin]

Hi Anne,

I am someone who is in the exact same position as you - ie, I have around 550 people on an email mailing list and need to get myself GDPR compliant asap.

I spent several hours last night working through it. In a nutshell, yes, you need to get everyone on your list to opt-in. Otherwise, after the 25th May, you'll be breaking the law. The fact that they have given you permission in the past or voluntarily subscribed is irrelevant unfortunately. An opt-out option is no longer sufficient.

This weekend I will be sending an email prompting people to opt-in, and will be sending a follow up reminder a week after. Even so, I expect that the number of contacts will diminish significantly after the 25th and anyone on my list who has not opted in again will be deleted. As a small business, this is pretty gutting. As if things are not hard enough already!

As far as the data that a business holds, it does not matter if it email, postal address phone number etc. An opt-in would be required for each case.

One additional point is that the rules are different for generic email addresses - eg 'info@'/ 'office@' etc, as opposed to 'anne@' as these are not personal data. You don't need permission for generic emails addresses.

I don't know how you send your emails, but I use Mailchimp to manage my mailing list. It's free, and they have made it as (relatively) easy to get to grips with GDPR and make sure I'm compliant. I just had to follow their bullet point instructions.

[annew]

Thanks, Ben - I have unfortunately come t the same conclusion. Watch out customers! I forsee a lot of my time spent in front of the computer over the next few weeks. 

[fermi de Sousa]

I wondered why The National Trust and The Eden Project had sent me similar emails about continuing to get emails from them!
cheers
fermi

[kris]

Anne please keep me in the list.
Kris

[Leena]

Anne please keep me in the list.

And me! 

[annew]

Thanks, folks, but you'll still get the boring email asking you!

[Neil]

Anne have a read of this

https://iconewsblog.org.uk/2018/05/09/raising-the-bar-consent-under-the-gdpr/

[annew]

Thanks, Neil.