Uncheck subscription types by default in email preferences
Currently when a subscriber clicks a link in a marketing email to manage their email preferences/subscriptions, they are presented with all subscription types checked by default.
The subscription types should not be all checked by default, when a contact has not opted-in to them all. This is a very poor and confusing user experience because even though, for example, the contact filled out a form to only opt-in to one type of subscription, visually it looks like they're subscribed to multiple/all. Because of this, they may just decide to opt-out of ALL emails, whereas they might not if it accurately showed what they had opted-in to.
Please change how this functionality works. I have not seen other platforms behave this way, and it really makes no sense from a subscriber's perspective.
This is exactly right and it's pretty crazy that this is how it is currently set up, given the nature of GDPR, ie never assuming consent – the message users get from seeing this subscription page massively undermines this. Not to mention how it undermines our contacts' trust in us and all the hard work a lot of us went through to align our processes with GDPR.
What we heard back from support on this was that the fact that the contact was not actually opted *out* at the point of seeing the page (but rather neither opted in nor opted out) meant all subscription options were open. That's fine: leave the boxes there to be checked if they want to, but they *cannot* be pre-checked.
And, in fact, we know that this user experience is doing *exactly* what @ridingforlife notes as a risk: causing our contacts to choose to unsubscribe from everything – and sometimes send us unhappy emails.
I fully agree. I receive complaints from users who think they're subscribed to ALL. So many of them unsubscribe from everything. This page should show what the contact had opted-in to.
It is also worth mentioning that, I believe (note, I am not a lawyer), this goes against Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation. A requirement of CASL is that checkboxes cannot be pre-checked. The email preferences goes against this by checking everything.
The only checkboxes that should be checked on the page are the subscription types the user has opted in to.
Guys, please, this is a VERY concerning issue. Please prioritize this and change the current functionality of these pages as soon as possible as described here.
This was originally posted 1,5 year ago and nothing changed since then.
EDIT:
Based on Frank's answer, it does make sense, if you want to work this as expected, you need to switch on "legal basis required" in settings
FInally got to the bottom of why people thought they were unsubscribed to everything. This is crazy!
I have never used another platform that displays the data like this, it is a SERIOUS headache for GDPR and user experience, how is this still the default?
I believe the issue is the correct enablement of GDPR.
In the GDPR settings if "legal basis required" isn't ticked, contacts are being treated as "opted-in" as long as they haven't opted out, meaning even an "unknown" status counts as opted in.
See Example below when I leave the box unticked I show as opted into all available subscription types.
Once that box has been ticked, only active opt-ins are shown in my preference centre.
If we have "Legal Basis Required" ticked, what happens to users who have not chosen a subscription type but we are legally allowed to send them mail through legitimate interest? We usually workflow these and I believe those count as marketing emails.
If "Legal Basis Required" is ticked then a subscription type needs to be set either via a form submission, a workflow, bulk edit or manually (explained here). Legitimate interest relates to the legal basis for processing data, i.e. why am I storing your data with the options explained here:
Legitimate interest - prospect/lead
Legitimate interest - existing customer
Performance of a contract
Freely given consent from contact
Not applicable
That is seperate to the legal basis to communicate, which are the subscription types, i.e. what type of information have I agreed to received from you/your company. Hope that helps...
But how do you avoid ending up with 50 subscription types if I have to workflow someone into one if I have basis for legitimate interest email?
For example I would need one for peoople sigining up to webinars, one for people downloading things, one for people doing "contact us" and then x10 for each country we operate in.
Well, that depends how you want to group subscription types and is totally up to you.
The ones I see most often with customers are:
Blog Subscription
Customer Service
Product Updates
Events/Webinars
Promotions
Newsletter
Marketing Information
You can then decide what type of contents fits into these subscriptions - it helps trying to think about subscriptions as topics/themes of content. As for translations check out the Multi-Language Subscription Preferences or speak to your Customer Success Manager about the Multiple Preference Centre BETA.
The problem for me with this setup is if someone comes to let's say a Barcelona specific event, and then someone else to a German event (with no consent given but legitimate interest) and I throw them both into events, I then have essectially lost segmentation of country.
Thank you for the clarification. The problem here is someone unsubscribing from events when they get something about german events but they still want to recieve emails about spanish events for example. The unsubscribe system is not segmented.
You mentioned, "In the GDPR settings if "legal basis required" isn't ticked, contacts are being treated as "opted-in" as long as they haven't opted out, meaning even an "unknown" status counts as opted in."
"Once that box has been ticked, only active opt-ins are shown in my preference centre." <--- The bolded part here is how I would expect it to work either way.
How does having the checkboxes pre-checked (when a contact is "unknown") align with other laws, such as CASL? Treating unknown contacts as opted-in is very CAN-SPAM, as that law is an "opt-out" law, whereas something like CASL is an "opt-in" law. The GDPR setting shouldn't have to be turned on to follow CASL?
