A special case of e-mail communication is newsletters, to which interested parties subscribe in order to be informed about current information by e-mail. In projects, newsletters can be used to provide information about the progress of the project or about publications and events.  

Newsletters or emails for advertising purposes may only be sent with the consent of the data subject or on a legal basis. 

Newsletter-Systems

(1) Provision of data protection information on the newsletter registration page

The newsletter registration page must contain a link to further data protection information. This must contain information about the purposes and processing of the processed data. 

(2) Only mandatory information is required

What do I need to send a newsletter? Right, just the e-mail address. There is rarely a valid reason for processing other data (such as surname or first name). You can request this data when registering, but it should be voluntary and registration should also be possible without this information. 

(3) Double opt-in procedure for registration

The use of a so-called "double opt-in procedure" is recommended. This means that after subscribing to the newsletter, the interested party receives a confirmation email in which they must actively confirm that they wish to be added to the mailing list. All common newsletter tools have such a function. 

(4) Option to unsubscribe from the mailing list in every e-mail

In every newsletter sent out, there should be an option to unsubscribe from the newsletter. There is often a corresponding link at the end of the email. This function is also provided by every newsletter tool.

(5) Data protection-friendly default settings in the newsletter system

Check the settings in your newsletter system. You should restrict functions that collect data about recipients (e.g. tracking and logging) as far as possible. 

If you want to know how many recipients have opened the newsletter, you must inform interested parties in the data protection information that you collect this data. 

Note: For large newsletter systems, you can find detailed recommendations for data protection-compliant settings on the Internet.

Source: Kate Stejskal on Pixabay