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Most GDPR Emails Unnecessary and Some Illegal, Say Experts (theguardian.com)
The vast majority of emails flooding inboxes across Europe from companies asking for consent to keep recipients on their mailing list are unnecessary and some may be illegal, privacy experts have said, as new rules over data privacy come into force at the end of this week. From a report: Many companies, acting based on poor legal advice, a fear of fines of up to $23.5 million and a lack of good examples to follow, have taken what they see as the safest option for hewing to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): asking customers to renew their consent for marketing communications and data processing. But Toni Vitale, the head of regulation, data and information at the law firm Winckworth Sherwood, said many of those requests would be needless paperwork, and some that were not would be illegal.
We're simply going to block all of the EU, because the consequences for even an inadvertent misstep could be catastrophic.
Please block my IP address as well: 192.117.111.61, because the consequences for even an inadvertent misstep by you could be catastrophic for me.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
The government has passed a law that provides for fines on the order of $23 million (or more, if the business is large). Businesses that are requesting new opt-ins are doing it so they can demonstrate that they have explained what they do with customer data and have obtained explicit permission to do so.
Yeah, it would have been great if these businesses had been doing that all along, but there was no legal requirement for them to do so. They may not have kept records that would allow them to demonstrate compliance. Why would it be a surprise to anybody that businesses are trying to cover their asses to avoid paying fines that could destroy them? This is a completely foreseeable result.