Requests for consent must be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous by a statement or by a clear affirmative action

[Liz_Davalos]

Not to add fuel to the fire, but a person is still being tracked in Marketo even if you don't include a token on a link and therefore that would violate GDPR unless I'm misunderstanding what people are talking about here. While I personally agree that we shouldn't have to provide free content without receiving the data it does seem that GDPR requires this. I'd say they may be crossing other legal lines there though and they may have to amend that (maybe what that company is banking on). The whole way a free market functions is you get something for your work, requiring it be given away freely breaks that so I can see some lawyer finding a leg to stand on. We're about 99.9% US so for me receiving our emails and being tracked go hand in hand, I can't give one option without the other. They can choose to subscribe all they want, but if they don't also consent to tracking they won't get emails. They simply cannot be a subscriber and not be tracked. We're making that clear for EU residents...

[SanfordWhiteman]

but a person is still being tracked in Marketo even if you don't include a token on a link

What do you mean by "tracked" here?

Clicking an untracked link sent in a Marketo email, opened in a browser that has Munchkin disabled, doesn't leave any extra tracks.

[Liz_Davalos]

I mean that Marketo still tracks opens and the email still exists in Marketo so technically (although barely) they are being tracked and you are still retaining their "personal" data.

[SanfordWhiteman]

Not if you turn off open tracking (which would also be turned off for anyone who is set to untracked).

From the standpoint of tracking, there's no trace of what happens after they send their email.

[Dan_Stevens_]

Is Marketo still tracking activity at an aggregate level (for use in email performance reports; and email link performance reports)?

[SanfordWhiteman]

Not any opens or clicks... I mean, obviously the fact that an email was sent is stored -- but that's the same with every email server on earth!

[SanfordWhiteman]

P.S. More related code at Selectively track links and opens based on lead opt-in (think GDPR, o’course)

[Liz_Davalos]

Thanks Sanford, that helps. I didn't realize that could be done. Although a template change means every email we have would need to be updated so that's unfortunate.

[Michelle_Miles3]

Dan Stevens​ Our counsel has said that you can't bundle or "buy" consent with content. I would not recommend an approach like the one described above.

[Grégoire_Miche2]

Hi Michelle,

Yes, this was the meaning of my comment above and all the lawyers tend to agreed on this one (at least we have one question on which they all agree )

-Greg