The Statement of the Personal Data Protection Inspector on the Use of Telephone Numbers and E-mails for the Direct Marketing Purposes

2013-08-23 13:18:58

Georgian companies often exercise direct marketing through small massage sending (SMS) and E-mails. In most of the cases the owner of the telephone number or the e-mail has no idea how his/her personal data occurred in the database of the advertising agency or trade company.

Since the appointment of the Personal Data Protection Inspector numerous citizens applied to the Office on the issue of the legitimacy of the marketing massages.

In light of the high interest of the society, Inspector calls upon the companies to act in compliance with the Law on Personal Data Protection and offers consultations on the issues related to the personal data protection.

According to the Law, for the direct marketing purposes personal data (name, address, telephone and fax number, E-mail) can only be processed if obtained from the public sources or if there is a consent of the data subject on the processing of his/her personal data.

Data controller is obliged to notify the citizens about their right to request the termination of data processing for direct marketing purposes and to create efficient opt-out mechanism in this respect. Data processing shall be terminated within the 10 days after receiving the written request from the data subject.

In addition, the data subject has the right to know what data on himself/herself is processed and for which purposes, how it was collected and to whom it was disclosed.

For further information please contact the Office of the Personal Data Protection Inspector of Georgia. Tel.: +995 32 2146831; E-mail: office@pdp.ge