[venning]

There are a couple mentions in this article that reference marketing emails and consent and the GDPR affecting them. I'm pretty sure this is wrong. The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) govern marketing communications, not the GDPR. Wired did a good breakdown of how these two are getting confused recently: http://www.wired.co.uk/article/pecr-gdpr-emails

[justinator]

PECR is merely a directive. It's not law, it's not enforceable.

[DanBC]

What does the R in PECR and GDPR stand for, and why do you think these are different?

PECR is the implementation of http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:320... which is European law.

There are a number of regulatory actions available to eg ICO if companies are violating PECR.

https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/what-we-do/taking-action-pr...

> There are a number of tools available to the Information Commissioner’s Office for taking action to change the behaviour of anyone who breaches the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). They include criminal prosecution, non-criminal enforcement and audit. The Information Commissioner also has the power to serve a monetary penalty notice imposing a fine of up to £500,000.

> These powers are not mutually exclusive. We will use them in combination where justified by the circumstances.

I'd agree that the lack of enforcement of PECR certainly makes it feel like just a suggestion.

[justinator]

> I'd agree that the lack of enforcement of PECR certainly makes it feel like just a suggestion.

If it's not enforced, then what was its point?

I think it's best to think of the GDPR as its replacement, rather than thinking of them side by side, to be honest.

Wired getting something wrong is... believable.