At midnight last night Brussels time, 11pm Irish time, the General Data Protection Regulation came into force.
However for the last few days our inboxes have been literally swamped with emails from hundreds of websites, services and random people begging us all to “opt in” to their emails and other communications.
Here at Blacknight we’ve always been very careful about how we handle email communications. Our anti-spam policies are rigid. They always have been.
So instead of sending all our clients emails that they don’t really need to get and asking them to give us consent they’ve already granted us we’ve sent out a simple email with a couple of links to our policies.
Here’s the text of the email:
Good morning
By now you must be sick of getting emails from companies asking you to ‘opt in’, and ‘stay in touch’. Some of them have taken the rather odd step of offering entry to prize draws for people in return for their consent.
We won’t be doing that. It’s silly.
We send emails for two reasons. One reason is that you are our customer and we need to talk to you from time to time. This is allowed under GDPR so that we can fulfil our contract to provide you with a service. This email is an example.
The only other reason we might email you is if you have asked us to. There are two groups of users who have consented to receive email from us.
One is the group of people who have subscribed to receive our monthly marketing newsletter, which contains news and special offers about web hosting, domain names and internet services. If you receive our newsletter it’s because you asked for it at some time in the past. Each newsletter contains a link which gives you the opportunity to unsubscribe from future bulletins. Again, this is fully compliant with GDPR. The newsletter is separate to whether or not you are a Blacknight customer. There is no obligation to receive the newsletter, and you can opt out at any time.
We also send an email version of our blogs, blacknight.tech and blacknight.blog to those of you who have requested that we do so. Again, this is compliant with GDPR because we have the consent of those who receive it, and they may revoke that consent at any time.
Lots of people are getting very excited about GDPR, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation which comes into effect today. At Blacknight we’re pleased to celebrate the strengthening of data protection laws, but we’re not going to get into a flap about something we’ve been doing for years already!
We’ve updated our data protection and related policies to specifically address the principles of GDPR, and you can read more about them here if you wish.
Or not. It’s up to you. In fact, you don’t even need to read this email! Although I guess I should have mentioned that at the start? Sorry.
To request access, amend, or delete any of your personal data processed by us, at any time, simply email gdpr@blacknight.com.
Kind Regards,
Michele
CEO
If you’ve got any questions please let us know!
About the Author: Michele Neylon
