Marketo GDPR Compliance-a summary of key ideas

Long time since I last compiled a list of ideas. At this point in time, as GDPR is now less than 3 months away and since everybody recognises that this is not just a EU issue, here is a list of existing ideas that we would really need to see implemented in order to make Marketo a tool that really helps marketers to be and remain compliant

Starting with information capture:

• Admins should be able to force users to add an opt-in field to a form. Vote for
• Also, reordering the fields freely even when we use progressive profiling should not require Javascript. Vote for ​ (Thx Margaux Lepine )
• Capturing opt-in information should also be feasible in the event app. Vote ​(Thx @Gunjan Batra )
• Capturing cookie value should not require JS: Vote ​
• We also need to make email click detection more reliable than it is, due to link scanners, since we rely on these events to validate double-opt-in. See ​

We also need to securely be able to process the double-optin, and therefore see removed the flaw inherent to the usage of triggers + filters in "person is created" smart campaign. See

Continuing with information storage compliance:

• It should be possible to anonymize data entries so that we can remain compliant when someone does not agree to be in our database and still get accurate reporting. Vote
• Furthermore, since Marketo email system controls strictly the opt-out, synchronizing our optin field and the unsubscribe one should be a no-brainer. Vote ​
• When we update some's email address and this perso is unsubscribed, Marketo should not automatically re-subscribe the person. This is a serious compliance breach. See (Thx @Courtney Grimes )

We also need more flexibility and control on how we can arrange forms:

• It should be possible to move fields below the progressive profiling, especially the opt-in field: ​ (Thx @Edward Masson )​, and ​
• And it should be possible to add a text area after the submit button with some legal wording:

Last but not least, GDPR drives to generalize preference center.

• The hard point is enforcing user preferences when running campaigns. This is very error prone and the source of potential huge liabilities. Vote ​

Any key point I have missed ? please feel free to comment, I'll add them.

-Greg