GDPR compliance

Our database contains contacts from companies, associations and independent professionals. These contact data fall within the specific case of direct marketing BTOB (commercial communication between companies).

 

Commercial prospecting by email is possible but people must first be informed and be able to oppose it if they are professionals. Professional email data (btob) in accordance with European GDPR regulations, do not require prior consent (opt-in), however they do require prior information and a right of opposition. It is in this sense that we send an email of prior information and right of opposition to all the companies referenced in our database. A link to object to the use of data, present in the message, makes it possible to delete contacts who do not wish to be present in our company database and to keep only contacts who have not objected to it.

 

The contacts present in our BTOB database are companies, associations and organizations with different legal forms and general contact data (eg: info@) or departmental contact (eg: marketing@, sales@, etc.).

 

These contacts are clearly excluded from the protection of the regulation based on recital 14 of the same regulation, which we report in full:

 

"The protection afforded by this Regulation should apply to natural persons, whatever their nationality or place of residence, in relation to the processing of their personal data. This Regulation does not cover the processing of personal data which concerns legal persons and in particular undertakings established as legal persons, including the name and the form of the legal person and the contact details of the legal person."

 

In BtoB, provided that the message is related to the profession of the person approached, you do not need an OPT-IN (or prior consent). You must apply a valid OPT-OUT on the BtoB email, which involves:

 

• To inform the person, when collecting their email, that it will be used for prospecting purposes;
• To allow him to oppose this use in a simple way and free of charge.

However, you must of course comply with all the provisions of the GDPR, in particular: right to information, unsubscription, data security, etc.

 

The so-called "Mixed" case is a much less frequent case in our database, but it does exist. Contact data that incidentally identifies the "natural person" can appear in two patterns:

 

a) pierre.martin@nom-entreprise.com

b) pierre.martin@gmail.com

 

 

In the first case, the person is clearly identified by the activity of the company to which he is linked; the second case mainly includes liberal and self-employed professionals who use, even for professional purposes, contact details that identify the "natural person" even beyond their professional role.

 

In both cases, there are 2 equally important arguments:

 

Case N°1: If the email address has been conferred by the subject, by indicating it as contact details for his company, the same action clearly brings them within the exclusion of recital 14.

 

Case N°2: If, on the contrary, you want to consider this data as referring to the "Natural Person", the right to processing is guaranteed by two other recitals of the law: 47 and 70. In particular, 47: 

 

"The processing of personal data for direct marketing purposes may be regarded as carried out for a legitimate interest."

 

 

Therefore, if the legitimate interest is aimed at direct marketing, the processing of this type of data is permitted. In this case, it is a question of clearly informing the recipient of the processing and its purposes and of ensuring that he can exercise his rights.