January 12, 2024 at 06:32AM
HelloFresh faces a £140,000 fine from Britain’s data privacy watchdog for sending 79 million spam emails and 1 million texts in seven months. The company misled customers about opt-in statements for marketing messages, failing to provide clear information or an easy opt-out process. The ICO issued the fine for breaching the law.
After reviewing the meeting notes, the key takeaways are as follows:
– HelloFresh has been fined £140,000 ($178k) by Britain’s data privacy watchdog for sending a staggering 79 million spam emails and one million texts over a seven-month period.
– The Information Commissioner’s Office found that the company’s marketing messages did not comply with the requirements for being “specific” and “informed”, as they did not mention SMS, were unclear, and were bundled with other aspects.
– Customers were not adequately informed that their data would be used for marketing messages for up to two years after canceling their HelloFresh subscription.
– HelloFresh sent a total of 80,993,013 messages between August 23, 2021, and February 23, 2022, which violated Regulation 22 of the Private Electronic Communications Regulations.
– The ICO received complaints from recipients about the spam messages and found that even after people asked HelloFresh to stop, the messages continued.
– Andy Curry, head of investigations at the ICO, stated that HelloFresh breached the trust of the public by not clearly informing customers about their opt-in choices and failing to provide a clear method for opting out.
– The ICO emphasized that it will take decisive action to protect customers’ rights regarding the use of their data.
Additionally, it was noted that HelloFresh was served with a £140,000 fine, contributing to a total of £2.44 million in fines issued to spammers since April of last year.