In the NEWSLETTER N. 435 del 29 novembre 2017
http://www.garanteprivacy.it/web/guest/home/docweb/-/docweb-display/docweb/7221009
the Italian Autority point attention on a type of questions that are often made to me during courses and / or conferences, id est if and within what limits it is possible to use the e-mail addresson socialfor marketing purposes.
Our Autority reminds us that “if an email address is present on a social network does not mean that it can be freely used for any purpose” and that “to send commercial proposals, for example, recipients’ consent is always necessary” (see also Guidelines of July 4, 2013 concerning the “social spam”); in fact, it is crucial the purpose for which the subject concerned freely entered his data.
The Italian Autority in the newsletter ut supra confirms that the data collected on social networks and more generally online can’t be freely used by those who access the profile that the social purpose is, in most cases, the sharing of information and the development of professional contacts, which is not compatible with the marketing of products and services
This is in line with the caims of the European Privacy Authorities, who have ruled that the registration of a service on the web involves the legitimacy of the processing of personal data by other participants on the same platform for the purposes of ‘ sending commercial information.
To conclude, it is essential to remember that it is not possible to carry out marketing activities on social data, the rule for which “promotional messages sent to users of social networks are generally subject to the Code’s discipline, and , in particular, to art. 3, 11, 13, 23 and 130 »; (see Guidelines 4 July 2013, section 6.1, “Social Spam”)