Question

A retail analytics team collected customer email addresses during checkout for the stated purpose of sending order confirmations. A marketing manager now asks the team to use those same email addresses to build a targeted advertising campaign for a new product line. The customers were never informed their data might be used for marketing. From a data ethics and governance standpoint, what is the most appropriate response?

Accepted Answer

Decline to use the data for marketing until customers have provided consent for that specific purpose

Answer

Proceed with the campaign because the company already legally possesses the email addresses

Answer

Anonymize the email addresses and then use them for the marketing campaign

Answer

Use the data now and add a marketing disclosure to future checkout forms