Consent is at the heart of responsible data use. It empowers individuals to control their personal information, reduces compliance risk, and enables organizations to process data within clearly defined boundaries. But while consent is essential, not all consent is created equal.
Broad or general consent, where individuals give sweeping permission for multiple purposes or partners, creates compliance risks, operational challenges, and poor customer experiences. This article explores why granular consent is a better approach and outlines a practical, three-step framework to implement it effectively.
- The problem with broad or general consent
- Why granular consent works better
- How to get granular: A three-step process
- Building trust through thoughtful consent
The problem with broad or general consent
Compliance risk across jurisdictions
Many privacy regulations explicitly restrict or prohibit bundled or vague consents. The EU’s GDPR prohibits combined consents under Article 7 and requires that consent be specific, informed, and freely given. Similarly, the Australian Privacy Act 1988 and guidance from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) restrict non-specific or bundled consent practices.
Depending on where a company operates, using broad or non-specific consent can quickly lead to regulatory noncompliance and increased enforcement risk.
Operational complexity
Broad consent statements like “we will share your personal information with business partners” may sound flexible, but they create ambiguity for operational teams. Who exactly qualifies as a “business partner,” a vendor, affiliate, or third-party controller? Without clear definitions, organizations struggle to apply consent accurately and consistently.
Poor customer experience
Unclear consent language erodes trust and increases cognitive burden for users. Each consent request requires mental effort, and as this adds up, it can cause consent fatigue, where users abandon the process or make impulsive yes/no decisions without understanding the implications.
Consents that are unclear, poorly worded, combined, or overly complex increase that mental load as customers attempt to sift through the meaning and make a good decision based on an amorphous information set. Every customer has their own limit for cognitive overload, but when that person reaches that limit, they may either exit the experience, or just begin randomly clicking yes or no. The former action removes the possibility of a sale and engagement, and the latter action prevents the company from receiving accurate information about preferences and interests, leading to compounded poor personalization and communication experiences.
Why granular consent works better
Customers’ preferences are rarely binary. Just as someone might love spaghetti but dislike clam sauce, users might want promotional discounts but not weekly newsletters. A binary “yes/no” approach forces nuanced preferences into oversimplified choices.
Granular consent allows individuals to express these nuances, deciding not just whether they want communication, but also what kind, how often, and through which channel. This leads to better engagement, more accurate data, and stronger trust.
The case for moving away from binary and all-or-nothing, overly broad, and poorly worded consents is irresistible. Enforcement risk, operational challenges, and customer experience combine to make a compelling argument for the opposite – granular consents. Though there is some balancing to avoid the opposite scenario of too many choices, which can also overwhelm data subjects, a thoughtful consideration of consents to get to the right equilibrium is time well spent. This three-step process can help an organization through this balancing act.
How to get granular: a three-step process
Step 1: Identify the choices to offer
Start by listing processing activities that could require or benefit from consent. Typically, activities not essential to delivering your core product or service should be considered optional.
Next, view consent through the customer lens to understand what would make their experience more personalized and less intrusive. For instance, if you offer multiple newsletters, give customers the ability to subscribe to each individually rather than forcing an all-or-nothing choice.
Also ensure your list aligns with local legal requirements. Some jurisdictions may mandate consent for certain processing, while others may prohibit it as a legal basis.
Step 2: Design clear, trustworthy consent experiences
Remember that plain language is key to not only creating compliant consents, but also customer trust-building experiences. Review consents with a variety of stakeholders, including real customers if that is possible, to learn what messages and consent placements lead to better understanding. Context is critical in understanding a given consent, so the placement of the consent in the customer experience can enhance – or degrade – the customer’s overall understanding.
At the same time, review local requirements for specific consent timing (often before the processing activity takes place), content, structure, reading level, or other prescriptive must-haves. Identify and remover any design or wording that could mislead, manipulate or trick a user, or otherwise fall into the category of a “dark pattern.”
Step 3: Operationalize consent and preferences
The hardest part of operationalizing consents, even granular consents, is attaching logic rules to each business use case. Once the company understands its consents/preferences and the exact language/experience to offer customers, it must then define what happens in the back office to fully live up to those expectations.
For example, if the company allows customers to sign up for up to three different newsletters focused on water purity, air quality, and ground contamination, respectively, from that point on the company must clearly understand which of its weekly newsletters fall into each category and be able to send or not send to a particular individual accordingly.
Though this example might sound simple in the singular, multiply this consent by thousands of customers, and each of those customers by ten or twenty other granular consents. Moreover, the company must accurately apply rules to the edge cases that always come up – the newsletter article that talks about the impact of ground contamination on water purity (so, in which newsletter does this belong?), and the marketing function that wants to include targeted ads in the newsletter (so, how does this practice stack up for consumers who have expressed a desire for the newsletter but not for marketing?).
Building trust through thoughtful consent
Consent goes beyond compliance, forming the basis of customer trust and connection. Overly broad, confusing, or bundled consents increase risk, frustrate users, and erode brand reputation.
By adopting a granular, transparent approach, organizations can reduce compliance exposure, improve data quality, and strengthen customer relationships.
Consent and preference management solutions should empower organizations to implement this balance effectively, enabling clear, compliant, and customer-centric consent experiences at scale.
Understanding consent management
Need to get a better understanding of Consent Management? Our guide explains why privacy and data protection are critical for consumers and businesses. Evolving technology increases expectations for personal data usage and consent complexities. Ensure compliance with global privacy laws and provide user control and transparency by investing in Consent Management. Understand:
- Consent and Preference Management Platforms
- Consent Management versus cookie management
- Who the main stakeholders are when it comes to consent
