While data privacy regulations, such as GDPR, CCPA, and Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (LGPD) intend to protect consumers from the unethical use of their personal information by businesses, small businesses, too, are affected. Further, these regulations are directly impacting how companies perform their marketing activities. So, how can email marketers stay compliant with these regulations?
As more data privacy regulations come into existence, one question that may come to mind is, “how will they impact email marketing?†Most of these regulations have laid out clear rules on how email marketers should collect, store, and protect consumer data. They have also laid out consumer rights when it comes to their personal information. Not following these rules can land your business in serious trouble. To achieve compliance with these regulations, you need to adopt new practices, such as obtaining explicit consent, storing consent records, and providing consumers access to their information.
Here, we shall look at how five platforms are ensuring email marketing compliance with data privacy regulations.
Learn more: Data Privacy and Marketing: Experts Share How to Fix Customer Trust and Win Over Audiences
1. Mailpro
For the different rights email subscribers have under the GDPR, Mailpro has developed a tool that helps you comply with GDPR. Here are some of the tools and how they help.
- To get subscribers’ consent
For email marketing professionals, it is necessary to maintain a record of where you obtain subscribers’ consent. Hence, to help you get the proof of consent, Mailpro has added a clickable box in its newsletter subscription form. Your subscribers can click this to acknowledge the proof of consent. Once this is done, Mailpro sends the subscribers an email for them to validate (Double-Opt-In). Mailpro then stores this information in your address book.
- To know who is sending mails, modifying, and deleting data
Mailpro adds a link called “My Data†beside the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the newsletter. Email subscribers can know what information you have about them in your address book by clicking this link. They can further download, modify, or delete the data they find inappropriate. If your subscribers want to know who is sending them emails, they can access this information by clicking “Sender Contact†inside My Data. The link will give them your information.
- To assist with the ‘right to be forgotten’ clause
‘The right to erasure’ or ‘the right to be forgotten’ is one of the important rights consumers have under the GDPR. To abide by this clause, Mailpro has made it possible for you to delete your account and data by clicking on your account information.
2. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is a popularly known email automation and solution provider. The platform has dedicated pagesOpens a new window for GDPR compliance on its website. The platform has also released new tools to help you stay compliant with GDPR’s requirements. Here is a brief overview of the tools.
- To obtain consent from GDPR-friendly forms
GDPR mandates that you obtain explicit, opt-in consent from the audience if you are collecting their data. You should also mention clearly how their data will be used while obtaining their consent. Accordingly, Mailchimp has built GDPR-friendly forms you can use to get and document your audiences’ consent. You can easily enable GDPR-friendly fields with the hosted forms connected with a list in your account.
These forms have separate checkboxes. This way your audience can decide whether to opt-in to each element of your marketing. You can also customize the checkbox options, field labels, and legal text. Further, Mailchimp maintains a record of each version of your form. This allows you to know the fields present on a form when your prospect submitted it. If the need arises in the future, you can use it to prove consent.
Here is a sample Mailchimp form.
Sample Mailchimp form
Source: MailchimpOpens a new window
- To manage prospect’s data requests
Under GDPR, your EU audience can request their data to be corrected, moved, or deleted at any time. Mailchimp already had a provision where the platform users could access their contact list and correct or update the data as per the customer’s request. The platform has now made it easier to access and manage your prospects’ data. It has made the process of exporting, updating, and sharing prospects’ data upon request faster and simpler. For example, if a prospect requests that you share their details, you can do so within a single step from your account.
Further, the platform has also made it compliant with requests to be forgotten. When you delete a prospect’s data, the platform deletes all traces of their personal information from your list and reports. You have access to anonymous, aggregated reporting data. However, details such as name and email addresses from your deleted prospects are removed.
- To handle and process data in compliance with different data privacy frameworks
Mailchimp has implemented strong privacy protections to handle your prospects’ data appropriately and in compliance with GDPR’s requirements. The platform has certified its compliance to the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. This means you can transfer the prospects’ personal details from the European Union to the platform in the U.S. with their permission. Permission terms are already built directly into the GDPR-friendly forms. However, you need to copy that language to your other list-building methods.
Besides offering these tools, Mailchimp has taken several other stepsOpens a new window to stay compliant with GDPR.
Learn more: Personalization vs Data Privacy: What Is The Future of Customer Experiences in a Post-Pandemic World
3. Litmus
Litmus is another platform that ensures GDPR and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) compliance. It is also a platform that is Privacy Shield certified. Litmus has dedicated pages and sectionsOpens a new window for GDPR and CCPA compliance on its website. This is how the platform ensures compliance.
- To process data under GDPR regulations
When it comes to staying compliant with GDPR, the platform expects you to sign a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) as per Article 28(3) of the regulation. DPA is an agreement entered into by the data controller, data processor, and sub processors. It regulates data processing activities under the relationship between the two parties. This essentially means that if you are providing your personal data subject to GDPR to Litmus for processing, you should sign a Litmus DPA.
- To maintain data privacy and security
Further, to ensure compliance, the platform implements a comprehensive privacy and security program. It has also taken various other measures, such as using approved sub processors, helping in case of a data breach and providing you the information you need to remain assured of compliance.
- To ensure compliance under CCPA
To maintain compliance with CCPA, the platform lists down its obligations under the regulation. For example, it clearly states in the agreement that the platform does not hold, derive, or exercise rights regarding your personal data. It also says that it does not sell, share, or retain your personal information except using it for necessary business purposes. If you are an individual subject to CCPA regulations, you have the right to obtain information and request deletion of information. The platform enables you to do this through your “User account†settings. You can also submit a form to exercise your rights regarding your personal information.
Here is the form you can use.
User information request form
Source: LitmusOpens a new window
4. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is an all-in-one email marketing and CRM platform that is available for businesses of all sizes. On its “Data Protection and Security†page, ActiveCampaign lists its compliance with GDPR, the SOC 2 auditing procedure, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The platform uses the following techniques to protect customer data:
- To classify and separate information
The platform classifies and restricts all customer data, which lets it prioritize sensitive information. The platform also uses a single tenancy architecture, which means everyone’s data is kept separate from others. This data separation, along with secure data centers, keeps your information secure.
- To restrict data access
ActiveCampaign provides the feature where your staff will have the exact level of access needed. Further, user access is audited regularly to ensure data is protected. Data access is also protected through multi-factor authentication, keys, password control, and following the best practices.
- To provide information security
The platform provides a layered access classification framework that allows data to be separated. A client-protected single tenancy data store, be it virtual private cloud or physical, is a security-hardened stack. This stack includes application firewalling, network and endpoint threat prevention, and vulnerability scanning.
- To secure software development life cycle
ActiveCampaign ensures that security is integrated into the code throughout the design and development phases of the software development life cycle (SDLC). Developers use code analysis, security testing, and security scanning tools that help them resolve issues of misconfigurations, open-source packaging, and potential vulnerabilities.
- To address potential threats
The company’s in-house red team periodically engages in penetration testing, where the white-hat hackers try to break the production systems. This helps the company address potential issues and threats.
5. Paubox
Paubox is another email marketing solution provider, which explicitly positions itself as being HIPAA compliant. The email provider is also GDPR compliant. Being HIPAA compliant is specifically necessary for healthcare organizations. While Paubox may appear a little drab, it does provide a dedicated email marketing platform for healthcare organizations that need to achieve HIPAA compliance. It also provides easy-to-understand documentation.
Paubox’s compliant features primarily revolve around the “data in motion†side of the compliance. This has four key components:
- To provide email encryption
The platform applies zero-step encryption on all sent emails, protecting them against malicious attacks without the need for you to log into the portal or flag an email for encryption. This is a safe and efficient method to protect the information you transmit and reduce the risk of a breach.
- To provide inbound email security
Paubox users can leverage the platform’s ExecProtect technology to get rid of display name spoofing attacks. The technology further protects against phishing attacks and ransomware.
- To ensure no sensitive data is transmitted
The platform allows you to set your own Data Loss Prevention (DLP) rules to ensure no sensitive data is received or sent.
- To comply with HIPAA’s disaster recovery policies
You can archive inbound and outbound mails to ensure compliance with HIPAA’s e-discovery and disaster recovery policies. The messages that are archived are stored encrypted at rest.
- To ensure safe storage of PHI
Besides email encryption and security, the company signs Business Associate Agreements (BAA) with covered entities, such as health plans, healthcare providers, and healthcare clearinghouses. This allows you to store your protected health information (PHI) data securely on the platform.
As such, Paubox provides comprehensive HIPAA compliance measures, both for data in motion and data at rest. However, you should remember that the platform does not offer dedicated GDPR compliance measures. Hence, you need to carefully choose the tools you use with the platform to ensure GDPR compliance.
Learn more: Zero Party Data: An Answer To Consumer Data Privacy and Better Personalization
Compliance Is Your Responsibility Too
New data privacy laws and regulations are being implemented worldwide to protect the privacy and interests of consumers. These regulations affect all aspects of marketing, including email marketing. As such, it has become necessary than ever to comply with these regulations if you do not want to risk losing customer trust or legal implications. Hence, when you look for email marketing tools or platforms, do your due diligence and select those that will help you stay compliant with these regulations.
What other platforms are maintaining email marketing compliance with data privacy regulations? Do share with us on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .