2024-08-13

Announcement on the use of direct marketing for pre-election campaigns (agitation) processes

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The law of Georgia “On Personal Data Protection” has been redefined with a special regulating article regulating direct marketing purposes, specifically defining direct marketing as the provision of information to data subjects/voters for the purpose of generating and maintaining interest in, selling and/or supporting image or social issues.

It is important to note that information sent directly to a data subject / voter by telephone, mail, e-mail or other electronic means in order to gain support is considered direct marketing, which could be a component of pre-election campaign (agitation). Data processing of the data subject / voter for these purposes should be protected with the following requirements set forth in Article 12 (Processing of Data for Direct Marketing Purposes) of the Law of Georgia "On Protection of Personal Data":

 

• Irrespective of the ground for collecting/obtaining data and their accessibility, data may only be processed for direct marketing purposes with the consent of the data subject.
• In addition to the name, surname, address, telephone number and e-mail address of the data subject/voter other data shall be processed for direct marketing purposes with the written consent of the data subject.
• Prior to obtaining the data subject/voter’s consent and when carrying out direct marketing, the controller/processor shall inform the data subject, in clear, simple and understandable language, of his/her right to withdraw his/her consent at any time and of the mechanism/procedure for exercising this right
• The controller/processor shall ensure that the data subject/voter has the possibility to request that the processing of data for direct marketing purposes be terminated in the same form in which the direct marketing is carried out, or to determine other available and adequate means to request the termination of the processing.
• The means to request the termination of data processing for direct marketing purposes shall be simple. In addition, the data subject/voter shall be provided with a clear and easily understandable instruction on the use of the means.

It should be noted that the data subject's/voter's consent to the processing of their data for direct marketing purposes should be voluntary, direct and expressed through an active action, which means that they should be provided with detailed information:

• Which political organisation (including political party) processes your data and, in addition, what type of data is processed (e.g. telephone number, name, address, etc.);
• How the marketing notification will be delivered (SMS, email, phone call);
• The possibility to withdraw their consent at any time.

Considering all the above, the Personal Data Protection Service, as an independent authority monitoring the lawfulness of data processing, urges political parties and election candidates, in case of direct marketing, to protect the rights of the data subject / voter, established by the Law of Georgia "On Personal Data Protection" and to act in accordance with the requirements defined by the Law.