GDPR, KVKK and Email Verification: What Marketers Should Know
Email addresses are personal data. A plain overview of how verification fits with GDPR and Turkey's KVKK. General information, not legal advice.
In this article
This article is general information, not legal advice. Ask a qualified adviser for your situation.
Email addresses are personal data
Under the GDPR and Turkey's KVKK (Law No. 6698), an address that identifies or can identify a person is personal data. Collecting, storing and checking it must follow data protection rules.
Where verification fits
- Purpose: checking an address that you already hold lawfully so that you do not send to dead mailboxes is a data-quality activity linked to the purpose you collected it for.
- Minimisation: verify only the addresses you need and delete files you no longer need.
- Accuracy: both laws expect personal data to be accurate and kept up to date, which verification supports.
- Security: use a provider with a clear privacy policy and secure transfer.
What verification does not do
It does not create consent. Consent or another valid legal basis for emailing the person still has to exist.
Good practice
- Keep records of consent.
- Honour unsubscribe and deletion requests.
- Limit retention. Mailbite archives uploaded lists and result files 14 days after they are created.
- Read the provider's privacy and data processing terms.
See Mailbite's privacy policy and GDPR page for how we handle files.
Mailbite Editorial TeamPractical guides on email verification and deliverability.
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