OPC says opt-in consent required to share emails with offline conversion tool
February 22, 2023In recently-released findings, the federal Privacy Commissioner (OPC) outlined a situation where a retailer was sharing consumer emails, collected for e-receipts, and some purchase information with Meta’s Offline Conversions tool. The OPC found the retailer’s privacy policy not to be sufficient to provide a basis for consent for this use case. While the data was shared in order to assess digital marketing effectiveness, Meta’s terms of service also gave Meta the ability to use that information for their own purposes. Even though the emails, shared in hashed form, were not considered sensitive, the OPC concluded that express, opt-in consent was necessary.
Law firm BLG offers a critique and some suggestions in the wake of this decision. Retailers may wish to assess the way they share data with vendors in this and similar circumstances.
