Hello All
I have read that gaining consent from clients under GDPR is more than an update to the enagagement letter.
I know there is an ICO checklist detailing what the consent communciation needs to include- opt in boxes etc...
Has anyone got a template for this communication please that can be shared?
Thanks
Balraj
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Replies (4)
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Hi Balraj
There are a couple of things to clarify here.
Clients who have engaged you to do compliance work for them have clearly given you consent to process their data.
This should indeed be clear in your terms of business (which you might include as part of your engagement letter).
GDPR also requires you to make a number of other things clear to clients either in a privacy notice or your terms of business.
If you also want clients to consent to you sending them regular tax tips, newsletters or other marketing comms you can simply include this as one of your terms of business and ensure they confirm this ok when they accept your terms of business.
You have the practical issue of ensuring that all existing clients have given their explicit consent to you to to send them marketing material. Most accountants who do this will, I expect, send updated letters of engagement and/or highlight their privacy policy and invite clients to confirm they are ok with this.
There is a lot of hype and misconceptions surrounding GDPR - which is a shame.
If you'd like a free copy of the list of documents I created for accountants who want to comply with GDPR with minimum fuss, you can download it here >>>
http://bookmarklee.co.uk/gdpr-documents-list/
I would take issue with bundling marketing consent into terms of business as each element of data processing should really have granular, rather than global, consent.
The ICO state that it should be separate https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protectio... - "We have made the request for consent prominent and separate from our terms and conditions."
On marketing consent it's definitely worth reading the following article
I agree - marketing consent should not be bundled together with terms of business.
See ICAEW guidance and templates for engagement letters and privacy notices here
https://www.icaew.com/en/technical/information-technology/cyber-resource...
Found this blog from my provider. It’s quite simply explained - https://www.brightpay.co.uk/blog/2018/03/template-data-processor-agreeme...
