How to Track Communications Consent (Opt In) for CASL and GDPR

How to Track Communications Consent (Opt In) for CASL and GDPR

Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) is the federal law dealing with spam and other electronic threats. It is meant to protect Canadians while ensuring that businesses can continue to compete in the global marketplace.

The General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy in the European Union and the European Economic Area. It also addresses the transfer of personal data outside the EU and EEA areas. Additional information on the regulation can be found at Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council

Both CASL and the EU GDPR expose folks to stiff penalties for sending commercial messaging to people who have not explicitly opted-in. A great resource to research more information on CASL: Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL). A second resource on the compliance can be found at CASL compliance help for businesses.

Enquire MAP provides our marketers the tools to help with both CASL and GDPR compliance. Additionally, it is a best practice to only send emails to those people who have explicitly given permission to do so, and Enquire MAP enables the User to do so by using the 'Opt-in' survey field in the forms editor. 

Moreover, all contacts who check this field when submitting a form provide their permission logged with a timestamp, meaning their consent can expire at any time via an Unsubscribe that is also logged. In Enquire MAP campaigns, there is a checkbox that, if checked, will only send emails to  people that have an Opt In status set to true.

Please Note: Opting In overrides previous Unsubscribe actions.

How to Set This Up

1. Navigate to Administration > Account Settings > Account Set Up tab > Force GDPR Compliance
2. The ability to force double opt in (I.E., explicit consent) by enabling the Force GDPR Compliance. Setting this in the master account will expose a checkbox on all campaigns that will only send emails to those that have given consent (I.E., an opt in flag).

3. Once this setting is enabled in your account, you can use the checkbox in your campaigns:

4. The user can also add a URL or the Opt In button in the emails built in Enquire MAP by using the dynamic term %STATIC_OPT_IN_LINK% to create an Opt-In URL: 

As prospects click the URL or button, they are automatically redirected to a standard Thank you for Opt In page which can can be customized according to the instructions below.

How do I customize the Opt In page?

As stated above, it is a best practice to only send emails to those people who have explicitly given their permission to receive them. In Enquire MAP, there is a standard Opt In page where prospects will be directed upon clicking the Opt In URL or button. To customize this page, follow these steps:

1. The user can also add a URL or the Opt In button in the emails built in Enquire MAP by using the dynamic term %STATIC_OPT_IN_LINK% to create an Opt-In URL:                                                                                                                                                                         As prospects click the URL or button, they are automatically redirected to a standard Thank you for Opt In page which can can be customized according to the instructions below.

2. Customize the Opt In Confirmation page by editing the system page as when navigating to Administration > System Pages. 

Using these features will reduce any exposure to CASL or GDPR fines significantly.

Please reach out to the dedicated Enquire Account Manager or Enquire MAP Support team for further assistance.