GDPR - Contacting parents

[Sarah_Church]

Hi,

 

Just having a last minute double check (and brain melt down!). Obviously we have all received a LOT of e-mails over the past couple of weeks asking us to positively opt in to continue to receive e-mails from them. When it comes to e-mailing parents we are only sending invoices and newsletters NOT marketing or generic e-mails. Do we still need their permission to contact them or is the fact that when we ask for their e-mail addresses we state that the reason for this is to send invoices to enough? Because by providing their e-mail address they are technically opting in? Any thoughts would be great as I am just contemplating whether it is totally necessary to contact the nearly 300 separate e-mail address holders to gain their permission, or if it is a given?

 

Thanks

[HoneyPancakes]

Only answering as no one better available at the moment.  Others will know better than I but my understanding is that anyone you've had dealings with in the past 14 months is fair game.  No consent required. 

[Lauren]

I'm pretty sure you don't need consent to send them invoices. You can't provide the service if they don't pay for it, so I would have thought that comes under the legal basis of 'contract'. 

For newsletters you can use 'soft opt in' for your existing parents as long as they signed up with you directly rather than you getting their emails from a third party (which I'm sure is the case!), they had the option to tell you they didn't want to receive newsletters when they were first added (e.g. you had a tick box but it was pre-ticked), and as long as your newsletters have an unsubscribe link on them. For people you add to your mailing list from now though you should make sure you have consent.

Honeypancakes, can I ask where you saw that it applies to people who you've had dealings with in the last 14 months? It makes sense that they would put a time limit on it, but I haven't seen that figure before.