# Database screening and consent

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/01/16/database-screening-consent/
- Published: 2017-01-16T12:50:39+00:00
- Author: Finbar Cullen

**When the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) fined The Royal Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the British Heart Foundation [last year](https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-and-events/news-and-blogs/2016/12/ico-investigation-reveals-how-charities-have-been-exploiting-supporters/),
one of its findings was that the charities had screened their databases of supporters,
but did not have their supporters’ consent to do so. **

I find that surprising, and wonder if the problem was in the way that the charities
sought consent.

In its “[vision for a better future](https://www.ncvo.org.uk/...us/.../NCVO_-_Charities_relationships_with_donors.pdf)“,
published in 2016, The National Council for Voluntary Organisations reported that
the ICO’s Direct Marketing guidance advises that the safest way of demonstrating
consent is by providing an unticked opt-in box for each specific form of marketing
the charity wishes to use, as it requires a positive choice by the individual to
give clear and explicit consent. If a charity undertakes database screening, it 
should make this clear in the fair processing statement, for example by making explicit
use of words such as ‘profiling’, ‘targeting’, research’, and ‘wealth screening 
companies’.

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I suspect the ICO is going to require charities to provide this kind of opt in when
seeking consent. It will be interesting to see just how helpful the ICO’s planned(
2017) educational event (in partnership with the Charity Commission and the Fundraising
Regulator) will be.

Finbar Cullen, [Research**Plus**](http://www.researchplus.co.uk/)

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