French Data Protection Authority takes a clear position on legitimate interest

On December 6^th, the CNIL – the French Data Protection Authority – took a very clear position. The CNIL published their position on their website (see below) stating that prospecting as well as the commercialization of postal addresses and phone numbers for prospection are possible without asking for consent from the data subject, provided that a clear information is given to the data subject and that he or she has the opportunity to object to such use.

From this perspective, we consider that legitimate interest should be seen, among other principles, as a possibility for direct marketing actors (such as Bisnode) to process personal data, after performing a balancing test on this processing conform the general principal of GDPR.

Read the CNIL's position

(article in French)