The 12 Months Data License

It’s true what they say, all good things must come to an end and this is also true with your data lists which you purchase from us at Clarity Solutions. All reputable data providers (owners and brokers) should be supplying marketing lists on a license period. Ours here is the 12 months license. Full information about terms of usage can be found by visiting our terms and conditions page.

Why is the data supplied on a license?

As a data broker, we don’t own any of the data we sell to you. This is also the case for you when you purchase it from us. The data lists remain the property of the data owner, they are simply providing you with a specified amount of time to try and convert as many of those businesses into your own clients or at least, businesses that wish for you to keep in touch with them.

With the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018, now more than ever before, we have to demonstrate that we are dealing with personal data in a careful and considerate way which is fair, transparent and data supplied is only used and kept for a limited amount of time and cannot be held indefinitely. Although the ICO have not put a complete timeframe on how long data can be licensed for, it is genuinely accepted that 12 months is a reasonable timeframe.

How does this process work?

To try to keep things nice and simple, we will break this down into steps for you:

Step 1

You order the required marketing lists that you need from us here at Clarity Solutions. Once you have confirmed the data lists that you want, we will send you an invoice along with our terms and conditions. The invoice will clearly state the data is supplied on a 12 months license.

Step 2

Once the order has been fulfilled, you will receive your data file from us via a secure download link. The file will be password protected and the password will arrive to you via email which is separate to the link.

Step 3

You download the data file to your computer and you can start using it right away, ensuring that you stick to the license terms and keep the data secure.

Step 4

Once we arrive at the 12-month anniversary of your data order, we will be back in touch with. We will ask you to confirm whether you would still like to use the data supplied 12 months ago, if so, we will run a data count and confirm how many of the records are still available and re-invoice you for a new 12-month license. You will then receive an updated list from us via the same methods as Step 2. If you have decided to no longer use the data file supplied, then we will require confirmation from you that the data file has been deleted from your systems. We will request this in the form of a Data Destruction Certificate which will need to be signed and returned within 28 days from receipt.

Why is all of this required?

There are a number of reasons for this. The first and foremost is GDPR, DPA 2018 and PECR compliance. If the ICO decide to investigate how we are supplying and you are using the data issued, then we need to be able to demonstrate that we are being fair and reasonable with the personal data we are dealing with. Data files can not be supplied indefinitely and need to be used as soon as possible from supply to make sure that data is will subscribed with the data owner and accurate.

Another key reason is that the data supplied is a valuable product that belongs to the data owner. We need to confirm to the data owner that the data lists supplied to you fall in-line with their own terms and conditions and the data lists are being used correctly.

Don’t worry, we will make sure this process is completely hassle-free for you.  To confirm, there is no obligation for you to renew the license. We would just need your signed confirmation via the data destruction certificate that if don’t intend to renew, then the data is deleted.

What about the companies who we are dealing with?

To confirm, we want it to be a case when we contact you in 12 months time from the date of purchase, that the majority of the records supplied are either now your clients, or they have responded positively to your marketing campaigns and want you to keep in touch with them.

Any companies supplied that have responded positively to your marketing campaigns are yours to own outright. A positive response means, any companies supplied by us that you have successfully converted into clients. Any companies that you haven’t converted into clients, but they want you to remain in contact are also yours to own.

Please remember ‘No response is not a positive response’

Let’s look at an example of this in action: Client X is smart and realises that Clarity Solutions has some of the best marketing lists available in the UK. They proceed to order 1000 records for an email campaign. They email the contacts supplied. Out of the 1000 the following comes back:

• 100 companies unsubscribe – You can no longer contact them again.
• 50 companies become clients – Yours to own outright.
• 20 Companies reply to email saying not of interest right now, but this could be down the line, please keep in touch – Yours to own outright.
• 830 companies provide no response – You have the remainder of the 12 months to try and get a positive response, ensuring you stick to the usage terms for emails laid out in the terms and conditions.

We are proud to work with data owners who are ‘data conscious’ and have strict terms for the usage of data supplied. If this is not adhered to, then the data becomes worthless due to spam, opt outs and complaints. Something we don’t want for you, us or the contacts within the data files. We want to help bridge the gap between you offering a product or services and the sectors that might want to have what you offer.

How is this enforced and what if I don’t comply?

We love the clients we work with because we have a mutual understanding of the importance of the personal information we are supplying and it must be done in the correct manner. It’s reasonable for us to get confirmation from you in writing that you have removed the data file supplied from your systems if you no longer wish to use it as we physically can’t remove it ourselves.

The data owner seed data files that are supplied. If you confirm that you do not wish to renew the 12-months license and you signed a data destruction certificate, and the data is used after this time, then you will be re-invoiced for this misuse. Again, please see out Terms of Business. If you neither confirm you want to renew the license and you also don’t send back the signed data destruction certificate, then we reasonably expect that you are still using the file and we will need to auto-re-invoice you to extend the license for a further 12 months.

We really would not want to go down this route. We love building meaningful commercial relationships with our clients and we are here to help you with your marketing campaigns. We do have to cover this aspect of data supply to fall in-line with both the data owner’s terms and conditions and legislation laid out under the GDPR, DPA 2018 and PECR.