CASL/EMEA - Pre-populate the opt-in box?

[Anonymous]

Hello all,

I know that CASL and EMEA legislation generally require to not pre-check the opt-in box for receiving email. But how do you fellow marketeers evaluate that for pre-populating that box? I mean, if a contact gives their explicit consent by checking that opt-in box, should/may that opt-in box be prefilled with a tick the next time they return to one of our forms?

If you have been researching that topic and could point me to some solid information, that'd be great.

Thanks,
Michael

[Anonymous]

Considering Cookies in EMEA aren't popular/are regulated, I'd avoid prepopulating even if they've implied consent before (considering cookies are the only way to know that information).

[Dory_Viscoglio]

Hi Michael, is this for something like a newsletter? If so, you might consider having two fields... One that is specifically for the form, and one which is actually used to know who will receive the newsletter. Reason for this being: a form where someone can subscribe should not be counted as an opt-out if they don't check the box, and boolean fields can only be true or false.

What I have is newsletter form field, and newsletter field. If someone checks newsletter form field, then newsletter field is changed to true. If they leave newsletter form field unchecked, then newsletter field doesn't change. If they opt-out via our unsubscribe page, then the newsletter field changes to false.

This might be good practice for all forms, CASL related or not, because if someone unchecks a box due to thinking that they already receive the newsletter, then that uncheck can potentially be removing them from the newsletter.

[Anonymous]

Michael,

I advise my clients that the opt-in box should be a progressive profiling field. If they're already opted in, there's no need to even present that field on the next form.

Once leads have indicated opt-in consent, this is considered "Direct Disclosure" and they are eligible to receive future commercial electronic messages.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your comments. This is very helpful!

@Kristen - I agree. Cookie usage might well be lower in EMEA than in the US. And in addition to that: In most cases a contact might not be able to decide if that opt-in box is ticked because it's pre-checked by default or pre-populated through his cookie data. They just see a pre-ticked box which is illegal.

@Dory - technically this solution makes a lot of sense, but I tend to think that we could understand an active not-checking of the box as an opting out. In many cases this might not be meant as on opt out, but in some cases I think it is.

@Rajesh - I like your idea the most. Although it removes the contact's option to opt out through not checking or unchecking a box. I know that theoretically a once given consent never times out, but I also heard counsel to regain explicit consent every time you present a form. But obviously we'd lose subscribers by doing that, and subscribers are expensive in EMEA.