New Guidance on Consent or Pay Models

Personalised advertising can be an attractive source of revenue for businesses that operate online. Tailoring advertising to a particular user’s preferences, interests, and activity can lead to increased engagement and higher conversion rates as it is likely to be of more interest and relevance to users.

It is, however, important to be aware that personalised advertising by its very nature uses personal data and must, therefore, be applied in a way that is consistent with individuals’ rights and the legal requirements of key legislation including the UK GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003.

Providing users with control over your use of their personal data is important, particularly in the context of “non-essential” processing such as that required for personalised advertising. Many users are often concerned about the use of their personal data for marketing purposes, particularly when they are not given much practical choice.

By using what is known as a consent or pay model, you can offer users the choice between allowing personalised advertising and paying to access your site or service without it. This helps to safeguard both your users’ privacy and your revenue stream.

New Guidance Notes on Consent or Pay Models are now available, explaining what consent or pay models are, and setting out the ICO’s position on such models, covering the legal implications of consent or pay, practical approaches to implementing such a model, and other key issues including the importance of user consent being “freely given”.