privacy policy question

[Michelle_Tizian]

So one of the new things that my company will be doing is providing our publication sponsors  (from Eurpoe, Asia and North America financial companies & etc.) access to our subscriber list.  My boss said that the sponsoring companies are allowed to market to the people on the list just once.  I thought that's not a good idea.  

I told her that it's like selling our list.  I checked our privacy policy and it says we do not share our lists to marketers.  I'm 100% sure that these companies have marketing departments.  But I guess bottom line if we say we do not share, we shouldn't share.  

Suggestions?  Thoughts?

[Josh_Hill13 · Accepted solution]

Michelle,

To me, what you are saying is exactly like renting your list out because the sponsor is paying you cash and receiving consideration.

In most jurisdiction now, you can only send email on behalf of others to your own list, meaning the sponsor could never have direct access to the list....unless of course, the person knew about, and explicitly, granted permission for you to hand over their email.

**I'm not a lawyer, but I would agree with you that this sounds like it is against your firm's stated policy as well as several laws.

So no, you should not do it.

[Michelle_Tizian]

Hi Josh,

Thanks for your response, there is a twist.  What if some of the subscribers on the list was acquired by direct mail, referral and by other means, but not necessarily acquired through our website.  Does the same rule apply? 

[Josh_Hill13]

Hi Michelle,

Thanks for the best answer 🙂

For subscribers who came through other means, does that mean that they eventually signed up for something on your site even if their original source was from Direct Mail, etc?

So for instance, you rent a mailing list and send out a postcard that points them to a website landing page. On that page, they sign up for your newsletter. But your form's Lead Source=Direct Mail because that's their original source.

Perfectly legitimate to do that. Even if you sponsored an email owned by someone else and collected responses on your site, you now own the people who responded because they opted in.

Without knowing the details on your end, I'd say as long as they signed up on your site (or were acquired legally), they are still on your list and still have a reasonable expectation that you won't sell their name on because that's what the privacy policy says.

Again, my understanding of the privacy laws is it would be illegal in nearly every case for your sponsor to use your list directly...and thus negligent of you to provide it to them directly. (but consult a lawyer who would know the details).

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't give my leads out to anyone else. I think Josh's suggestion of sending the email for them, is better than providing the lists to them in hopes that they will delete them once you're done.

[Michelle_Tizian]

Thanks Josh and Adam.  I looked at our print collateral and it still points them to sign up on our website.  Even our comp and referrals still end up on our website.  So I just told me boss that we explicitly say we don't share our lists on our website.  So we shouldn't.