Tbilisi, Georgia: According to the Law of Georgia, direct marketing is defined as the formation and maintenance of interest in image and social themes, as well as the provision of information to the entity/voter for realization and/or support.
It should be noted that direct and indirect delivery of information to voters for support, through telephone, mail, email, or other electronic means, is direct marketing, which can be an integral component of pre-election campaign (campaigning) measures.
For this purpose, the voter’s data processing shall be protected under Article 12 of the Georgian Law (Data Processing for Direct Marketing Purpose):
- Regardless of the basis of data collection/acquisition and their availability, the data for direct marketing can only be processed with the consent of the voters.
- In addition to the name, surname, address, telephone number, and e-mail address of the voter, his written consent is required for processing other data for direct marketing purposes.
- Before receiving the consent and for direct marketing, the person responsible for the processing shall explain to the voters in a clear, simple, and understandable language the right to use the consent at any time and the mechanism/procedure for such implementation;
- The person responsible for the processing/processing authority shall ensure that voters can request a termination of data processing for direct marketing in the same way as direct marketing is carried out, or to determine another available and adequate way to request a termination of the data processing.
- The means to request to stop processing of data for direct marketing purposes (for example, “NO SMS”) should be simple. At the same time, voters should be given clear, easy-to-understand instructions on how to use it.
- Imposing a fee or other restriction on the exercise of the voter’s right to vote for consent is prohibited.
Voter consent for its direct marketing purposes generation must be voluntary, concrete, and an active action, which means it has detailed information, in particular:
- An individual/organization, including a political party’s data (e.g., telephone number, name, address, etc.), about processing;
- Generate marketing message for him/her (short text message, email. mMail phone call;
- To withdraw his consent at any time.
The Data Protection Service, as an independent body regulating the laws of data processing, urges political parties to protect the rights of voters set out by Georgian law when conducting direct marketing and to act according to the requirements stipulated by law.
