Customer's Right to Opt out of Marketing Inserts

A recent finding by the Canadian Office of the Privacy Commissioner indicates that institutions subject to the Personal Information Protection and Electronics Documents Act (PIPEDA) have an obligation, even if difficult to implement, to ensure that unsolicited advertisements are not sent to customers who have opted not to receive such materials from the institution. The Privacy Commissioner considered this issue after receiving a complaint from a bank customer who continued to receive advertisements with his credit card statements after having requested that the bank not send him any unsolicited marketing materials. In response, the bank claimed that the customer's personal information was not used in the generation of the generic, non-personalized advertisements included in the statements and that the amount of additional labour required to remove the advertisements from specific customer's statements caused his request to be unreasonable. In her review of the complaint, the Assistant Privacy Commissioner disagreed with the bank's position and concluded that its policy was contrary to the requirements set out in PIPEDA, namely, individuals have the right to opt out of secondary marketing such as advertising materials included in credit card statements. For the Assistant Privacy Commissioner, the level of difficulty for the bank in complying with this request was not relevant. The Assistant Commissioner recommended that the bank implement a means by which customers may withdraw consent to secondary marketing inserts in bank statements. For more information about PIPEDA Case Summary #308, see: http://www.privcom.gc.ca/cf-dc/2005/308_20050407_e.asp For more information about the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, visit: http://www.privcom.gc.ca Summary by: Sue Diaz