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Appending definition
Appending is the process of attaching additional information to your customer records.
In the email-marketing world this could either be:
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Attaching demographic or lifestyle data to your email record (assuming you have
a name and address data as the match key) or |
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Attaching an email address to an existing customer name and address record. |
Attaching demographic or lifestyle data
In the first instance, attaching additional information to an email record would
be the same as attaching demographic and lifestyle data to any other name and address
record but in this case, you happen to have their email address as well. This is
common practice for marketers and is legal as long as such appending is in compliance
with the 1998 Data Protection Act and the Privacy and Electronic Communications
Regulations 2003.
Attaching an email address to an existing customer name
The second case is more complex and all hinges around the permissions, which have
been given. Appending email addresses is permitted when the individual has given
third party permission to a data owner which makes it clear at the time of opt-in
that their data may be shared with third parties.
Opt-in permissions
Appending will also be permitted when an individual has explicitly opted-in to receive
email marketing messages from a particular company, via an email from the original
data owner. If this permission has been given then an email address can be appended.
Having consented to their email address being shared in this way, it is then best
practice for the individual to be sent a message either from:
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The Data Owner to explain that their email address will be passed onto the client
company and provide them with an initial opportunity to opt-out from this happening
or |
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The client company who will be the recipient of the email address to explain to
the individual where they got their email address from and giving them the opportunity
to refuse further emails from them. |
Key areas to satisfy before email appending:
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| | How and when the list was built. If the list is an amalgamation of different suppliers’
data you would need to be satisfied about what data protection notices and privacy
policies were in place at the point of data collection by each supplier. |
| | How unsubscribe requests have been processed and relevant addresses suppressed. |
| | That the data user is covered by a data licence, which ensures they comply with
the 1998 Data Protection Act and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations
2003. |
| | Best practice may suggest that only customer data is appended, as the individual
would already be familiar with the data user. |
| | That the individual is informed of what is happening to their data, understands
where the original consent comes from, can see a privacy statement of the data user
and has an opportunity to refuse before any data is passed to the data user. |
| | That the individual can easily opt-out/unsubscribe from the data owners list. |
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