What is the right to rectification?

The right to rectification under GDPR Article 16 allows individuals to have inaccurate personal data corrected and incomplete data completed. For email marketing, this means subscribers can request corrections to their name, email address, profile information, or any other personal data you hold about them. If someone's name is misspelled in your database, their preferences are recorded incorrectly, or demographic data is inaccurate, they have the legal right to request correction.

Rectification requests must be handled without undue delay and generally within one month. When correcting data, consider whether you've shared that data with third parties. If uso, you must inform those recipients of the rectification unless doing so proves impossible or requires disproportionate effort. For email marketers, this typically means ensuring corrections propagate to your ESP, CRM, analytics platforms, and any other systems where subscriber data exists. The correction should be comprehensive across your data ecosystem, not just in one system.

Practical implementation often involves providing self-service mechanisms through preference centers where subscribers can update their own information. This reduces the operational burden of processing rectification requests while giving subscribers direct control. However, even with self-service options, you must be prepared to handle formal rectification requests that arrive through other channels. Document corrections made, retain records of the original data (in case questions arise about what was changed), and verify the requester's identity before making changes to prevent unauthorized modifications. The right to rectification ensures people aren't stuck with incorrect data about themselves. When they tell you something's wrong, you fix it.