Compliance and legislation is can be a minefield. What organisations can or cannot do are covered in host of laws and regulations. This edition, we’ll be investigating the whole issue of privacy and marketing databases including the do’s and don’t s.

From a marketing perspective, data is critical to most organisations and naturally to marketers. The more we know about our target audience the better informed we will be in terms of effectively send messages that will be of maximum value. Marketing is no longer an ‘art’ – it’s a very distinct science and the more technical it becomes it appears that more laws are put in place to protect the rights of individuals and organisations and quite rightly so.

We’re all aware of the dreaded ‘spam’ or unwanted and unsolicited email that by and large goes into a designated folder in our email systems. None the less, it is irritating and of course a waste of time and resource because I for one still have to check my ‘spam’ folder just in case…….and yes, quite often I will find an email that shouldn’t be there and of course vice versa.

So, what can marketing departments need to conform to?

• only collect information that you need for a specific purpose;
• keep it secure;
• ensure it is relevant and up to date;
• only hold as much as you need, and only for as long as you need it; and
• allow the subject of the information to see it on request.