Egypt Email Lists: Legal Collection Practices

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Building an email list for marketing to individuals or businesses in Egypt requires strict adherence to legal and ethical collection practices, primarily guided by the Egyptian Personal Data Protection Act (Law No. 151 of 2020), which came into effect in late 2022. This law imposes significant obligations on entities processing personal data, including email addresses.

The cornerstone of legal collection under Law 151 is obtaining valid consent. This means you cannot simply scrape email addresses from websites, social media, or public directories. You must get explicit permission from the individual before adding them to your email list. This consent should be:

Freely Given: Not coerced or obtained under misleading circumstances.
Specific: The individual must understand exactly what they are consenting to (e.g., receiving marketing emails about your products).
Informed: They must be clearly informed about who you are (the data controller), what data is being collected (their email), why you need it (marketing purpose), how it will be used, who it might be list of denmark consumer email shared with, and their rights regarding their data.
Unambiguous: There should be no doubt that consent was given, often requiring an active action like checking a box that is not pre-ticked.
Revocable: Individuals must be informed that they have the right to withdraw their consent at any time and be provided with an easy way to do so (typically an unsubscribe link in every email).
For businesses, Law 151 also distinguishes between personal data related to employees (covered under stricter provisions requiring a written agreement) and business contact data, which still requires lawful basis, often consent or contractual necessity.

Therefore, legal collection practices for Egyptian email lists involve:

Using Opt-in Forms: Implement clear online forms where users actively check a consent box.
Providing Clear Information: Include a concise privacy notice and a link to a comprehensive privacy policy on your website and in consent mechanisms.
Direct Opt-in Only: Rely only on methods where the individual directly and knowingly opts in (e.g., signing up on your site, at an event with clear explanation).
Never Buying or Scraping: Avoid purchasing lists or using automated scraping tools, as these methods inherently lack individual consent and violate data protection principles.
Easy Unsubscribe: Ensure every email contains a clear, functional unsubscribe link.
Complying with these practices not only avoids legal penalties under Law 151 but also builds trust with your audience.