You may receive advertisements and marketing communications when you have given your consent, when the advertisement is related to products or services similar to those you have already bought from a particular company, or otherwise when the company sending the marketing communications has a legitimate interest in doing so.
Depending on the legal basis for sending the unwanted ads, you can avoid being sent unsolicited communications in one of the following ways:
- Sign up for a mail preference service (Robinson List)
If you do not want to receive advertisements that you have not given your express consent to receive, signing up to a Robinson List is a good way to prevent this. These lists have to be checked by companies before they start an advertising campaign, and they cannot include anyone registered on the list in the campaign.
However, registering on a list like this will not prevent you from receiving advertising if you are a customer of the company and the ad relates to products like those you already bought, or if you gave the company permission to send you this kind of communication.
Registering on these lists is free.
The only applicable mail preference service currently active in Spain is called the Robinson List, and it is managed by the Spanish Digital Economy Association (ADIGITAL).
By registering yourself on the list you can choose to stop receiving marketing communication by any means, or you can block specific means or communication channels (by post, telephone calls, email or any other means).
Keep in mind that registering on the Robinson List only comes into effect three months after the date you register to be excluded from future ads. This means you may still receive some marketing communications during the three month period.
It is important to provide accurate data when you register on the list, as it will only take effect for the addresses or telephone numbers given when they match exactly with the details provided by the interested party.
You can register on the Robinson List by clicking on this link.
- Revoke your consent
You may be receiving marketing communications because you gave permission for them.
You must give express consent to receive automated telephone calls without human intervention, or for marketing communications sent via email, SMS, MMS or any other electronic means, except when the communication is from an entity of which you are a customer, and the advertisement refers to products or services similar to those you already bought.
If you gave your permission for your data to be used for advertising purposes and you do not wish to continue receiving advertisements, you can easily revoke your consent at any time, at no cost, by calling a free telephone line or contacting the customer services that are responsible for the data processing. If the marketing communications were sent by email, they must include a valid email address or link where consent can be revoked.
- Exercise your right of opposition
If you do not want a particular company to process your data for advertising purposes, you can exercise your right of opposition at any time, before this company, through a simple and free means, to exclude you from the advertising campaigns being carried out.
When exercising your right of opposition, you should clearly indicate in the request that you do not want your data to be used for advertising purposes, indicating the channel or channels that the opposition refers to, and the data you do not want to be processed.
In the case of communications sent by email, exercising the right of opposition must be carried out with a valid email address or other link that must be included in the electronic communications for advertising purposes.
- Exercise your right not to be included in telephone directories
You may exercise your right not to appear in telephone directories, for free, or if you prefer, you may continue to be included in telephone directories without the information contained therein being used for advertising purposes. You may also request that your address, or any other information contained therein, be partially omitted.
To exercise this right, contact the operator of your telephone service and inform them you that you do not want your personal data to be published in subscribers' guides or ask for your data not to be used for receiving advertisements.
Your data should then be removed or excluded for advertising purposes from the online version of telephone directories, as well as from the next edition of them that is published in hard copy or on any other physical medium.