How to correctly forget a person's details

AyMINE supports the processes required by GDPR rules including correct forgetting

• What does it mean to forget a contact
• Why forgetting is important
• Why forgetting is not done automatically
• How deleting a contact is different from forgetting it
• Delete or forget?
• Where to go next

What does it mean to forget a contact

When a person's contact is forgotten, all personal data is automatically deleted:

• All data files for the contact are deleted.
• All attachments in email messages that the forgotten person wrote to you are deleted.

Why forgetting is important

GPDR-compliant forgetting support ensures that you don't actually have data left anywhere in your system that you shouldn't have. For example, if you have exchanged contract and service provision documents, you will probably have messages in your communications that you should no longer have after forgetting.

Forgetting retains the records necessary to substantiate communications for billing or statement of work, for example, but removes the data that would create a record of personal information.

Forgetting does not delete data in mail that you have sent to the person. For example, if you have previously sent a quote or invoice for services, the information remains in your messages. This is deliberate, as there are often important documents in outgoing mail. On the other hand, they are more likely not to contain the recipient's personal information.

Why forgetting is not done automatically

It is common for a person to ask to be forgotten even when it is not possible to forget them. For example, you provide services to him or you need his details for legal reasons. In this case, the person will unsubscribe from all groups and you can be sure that you will comply with their request, but will not delete data that may need to be kept. The decision to delete or forget remains with you or your staff. But you don't have to worry about forgetting; the system will notify you right on the main desk
A forgotten contact without details may remain on the blacklist – if for other reasons

How deleting a contact is different from forgetting it

There are important differences between forgetting a contact and deleting it:

• When you delete a contact from the address book, you also delete it from the blacklist. You also lose the information that even if you receive a contact from a broker, for example, you should not contact them again.
• When you delete a contact normally, the files in the emails of the communication with the person are not deleted. This leaves information in the inbox that should not be there.

Delete or forget?

If someone has withdrawn consent and you have no other legal reason to keep their data, the right thing to do is to delete the contact. If you email people, it is a good idea to forget first and then delete the data.

If keeping a client on a blacklist is important to maintaining the relationship, it is right to forget them but not delete the data and only delete it when there is no reason to keep it.

Where to go next

• Unsubscribe from bulk mail
• GDPR and bulk email