Should you collect contact information for downloading files

After downloading my stored data on the site — I've been a member since — I was presented with an enormous amount of personal details that have been collected about me over the years. It had the phone number of my late grandmother who never had a Facebook account, or even an email address. It preserved the conversations I had with an ex-- someone with whom I thought I had deleted my digital ties. It even recalled times I was "poked," a feature I had forgotten about. After the news broke last week that data firm Cambridge Analytica accessed information from 50 million Facebook users without their knowledge, I wanted to know more about what information Facebook has on me.

By visiting the Settings page, I clicked an option to download a copy of my data at the bottom of the general account section. Related: How to stop Facebook from mostly sharing your data. Facebook emailed me a link to download my data. The process took about 10 minutes. Your email address will not be published. Store your downloads on your website The step is storing your downloadable material for example, a PDF with a download plugin.

There are three popular download monitor plugins and they all work pretty well. Once you have uploaded your file, click on the usual Publish button. Now go back to the All Downloads page and you will see your download. Here are three I recommend: Forminator is a fully-featured free plugin. With it you can create powerful contact forms that collect data from the website visitor.

It also integrates with several popular mailing list providers. Hustle is fully-featured free plugin which allows for forms to be created and placed in a number of locations, including popups. It has integrations for a larger number of mailing list providers than Forminator does.

You can pop-up, slide-in, or embed your form. Gravity Forms is fully-featured premium plugin paid yearly that allows you to create powerful contact forms with advanced logic. These forms once filled out can redirect conditionally, display different messages depending on fields selected, send multiple emails, store data to your email mailing list provider, and logs all forms to the database.

Give the visitor the download Once you have created your form with the fields you would like, you can now set up your thank you redirect. Optionally send the visitors info to a mailing list For a lot of website owners the goal of offering downloads is to populate your mailing list.

Alternative non-Plugin Option There is, of course, another commonly used method. Conclusion This tutorial has explained how to let people download materials in exchange for providing an email address and contact info. Hello, kinda old post, but can anyone elaborate how you can use hubspot to track a download? Hi Gen! Have you the same problem? Best regards! Hey Gen, thanks for the awsome Tutorial, but I still have a question. Best regards Antonia. Hi, Great tutorial.

Finally, can this combine the output in an archive instead of multiple downloads? Is there a way to make this use a different form plugin?

Namely, Visual Form Builder? No, the shortcode is only setup for individual download id numbers. This setup is for a direct download link. Hi Gen, I saw on a previous forum that the problem is with contact form 7.

Glad you found the issue, yes CF7 can be a little fussy on certain things. IDs are guaranteed to be unique, while titles are not. So you must used the IDs. Thanks Gen, This is the most clear tutorial I found on the subject. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent. Cookie Settings Accept All.

Organisations that do not handle personal information properly run the risk of breaching data protection law, which could have serious consequences for both the organisation and their staff. In this scenario, the customer information is collected for the sole purpose of assisting a contact tracing scheme. This information must not be used for any other purposes than disclosing it to contact tracing personnel. This purpose should be made clear to customers.

Management should also ensure that staff are aware that it is an offence under the Data Protection Act to obtain or disclose customer information without the consent of the organisation. Although organisations cannot always safeguard against rogue behaviour from a member of staff, there are basic measures that should be in place to help ensure the safety and security of customer and visitor information.

If paper records are used, they should be kept out of public sight and in a safe place, with measures to prevent malicious access eg locked doors, safes and keeping them out of sight and out of reach of customers during opening hours.

Whatever approach is taken, staff need to be properly trained so they understand how to play their part in ensuring that the system works effectively, in compliance with data protection law. Personal information collected for the specific purposes of contact tracing cannot be used for direct marketing or advertising, profiling a customer base or analysing demographics. This would be considered as a misuse of the information.

A public library maintains records of visitors to assist a test and trace scheme. The library wants to know what to do when a young person visits the library. We advise that the library checks the relevant government guidance pages to ensure they are following the correct procedures in terms of the age of those whose contact details they should be collecting.

The library should not conduct intrusive verification checks to determine age, for example asking whether a visitor is over a certain age would be sufficient. If there are no government guidelines on the age limit for collecting customer contact details, the library will have to make a sensible decision about whether or not they think that the young person can understand why contact information is being collected, and what will happen with their information.

In order for the collection and use of this information to be fair, it is very important that the library is transparent when collecting this information. If staff at the library believe the individual is below the age required to provide this information as set out in government guidelines, and do not think that the young person is able to understand why this information is required, they should exercise caution and not collect their contact details.

The library should not deny access based on age, if they would usually allow young people to visit unaccompanied by an adult. Library staff could place posters at entrances and around the premises that can be understood by all ages. In the case of younger visitors, library staff could greet visitors on entry to explain the process. It is very important that information about young people is kept securely, it is not visible to other adults visiting the premises, and access to it by staff should be strictly limited.

They will be downloading a government QR code poster and encouraging people to scan it when they visit. However, they have a few regular customers who do not have a mobile phone, and they want to make sure they have alternative methods to collect this information.

Organisations should also have an alternative method to collect this information. Businesses will need to decide which alternative method is most suitable for their business and their customers. If the organisation has decided to collect this information manually, they should not do so with an open list which is in public sight. For example, they could consider the following:.

Further information about the relevant security requirements are available here. As part of the measures to help prevent the spread of COVID, a restaurant places official QR code posters on the walls and asks customers, visitors and staff to download an official contact tracing app and scan this code when they visit the premises.

The restaurant has a specific policy in place that states that if customers, visitors or staff do not scan the QR code with the contact tracing app, they will turn them away and staff will not be able to work.

A few customers and visitors complain to the restaurant that they either do not have access to a smartphone or do not wish to download the contact tracing app, and are subsequently denied service at the restaurant. The use of an official contact tracing app is voluntary. Guidance in England states that if someone does choose to scan the QR code, the organisation should not then also collect this information separately.

Organisations should also have a secure alternative method in place for recording the contact details of those who prefer not to use an app, or do not have access to a smartphone. If staff members download an official contact tracing app, you may be able to collect information that your employees provide to you on a voluntary basis such as alerts and advice they receive. Your employees may also need to notify you of certain information, for example if they are required to self-isolate.

However, in the context of employment, making an official contact tracing app mandatory is an issue that concerns not only data protection, but employment law and your contracts with employees, health and safety requirements, equalities issues amd government guidance for your sector. As an employer, you will need to assess the need for staff to download an app on work devices, taking into account necessity, risk and how you would process and retain sensitive information relating to health.

What do we need to tell visitors, customers and staff when we collect their data for the contact tracing scheme? How do I make sure my collection and sharing of data is lawful when maintaining records for contact tracing? Do I need to collect consent for contact tracing? How much personal data should we collect for contact tracing?

How long can we keep personal data collected for contact tracing? How do we make sure that the personal data we collect is accurate?

What data protection rights do people have in relation to the data we collect about them for a contact tracing scheme? This information can give you insights about how many products you sell, what types of products are most popular, how often people typically purchase from you and more. You can also collect valuable data through your marketing campaigns, whether you run them on search, webpages, email or elsewhere. You can even import information from offline marketing campaigns that you run.

The software you use to place your ads will likely give you data about who clicked on your ads, what times they clicked, what device they used and more. Lotame Insights can also help you gather data about your campaigns. If you track the performance of offline ads by, for example, asking customers how they heard about your brand, you can import that data into your DMP.

Social media is another excellent source of customer data. You can look through your follower list to see who follows you and what characteristics they have in common to enhance your understanding of who your target audience should be. Many social media sites will also provide you with analytics about how your posts perform. Third-party tools may be able to offer you even more in-depth insights.

Offering customers something in return for providing information about themselves can help you gather valuable customer data. You can do this by requiring some basic information from customers or site visitors who want to sign up for your email list, rewards program or another similar program.

One benefit of this method is that the leads you get are likely to convert because they have actively demonstrated an interest in your brand. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, you can also gather insights from monitoring the foot traffic there. The most straightforward way to do this is with a traffic counter on the door to help you keep track of how many people come into your store throughout the day.

This data will reveal what your busiest days and hours are. It may also help give you an idea about what is drawing customers to your store at certain times. Collecting data is valuable because you can use it to make informed decisions.

The more relevant, high-quality data you have, the more likely you are to make good choices when it comes to marketing, sales, customer service, product development and many other areas of your business. Some specific uses of customer data include the following. It can be difficult or impossible to get to know every one of your customers personally, especially if you run a large business or an online business. The better you understand your customers, though, the easier it will be for you to meet their expectations.

Data collection enables you to improve your understanding of who your audience is and disseminate that information throughout your organization. Collecting and analyzing data helps you see where your company is doing well and where there is room for improvement.

It can also reveal opportunities for expanding your business. Looking at transactional data, for example, can show you which of your products are the most popular and which ones do not sell as well. This information might lead you to focus more on your bestsellers, and develop other similar products. You could also look at customer complaints about a product to see which aspects are causing problems.

Data is also useful for identifying opportunities for expansion. For example, say you run an e-commerce business and are considering opening a brick-and-mortar store. If you look at your customer data, you can see where your customers are and launch your first store in an area with a high concentration of existing customers. You could then expand to other similar areas. Analyzing the data you collect can help you predict future trends, enabling you to prepare for them.

As you look at the data for your new website, for instance, you may discover videos are consistently increasing in popularity, as opposed to articles. This observation would lead you to put more resources into your videos. You might also be able to predict more temporary patterns and react to them accordingly.

If you run a clothing store, you might discover pastel colors are popular during spring and summer, while people gravitate toward darker shades in the fall and winter.