Understanding UK electronic marketing rules

The short version

LinkWise finds publicly available contact addresses so you can reach out about a genuine, relevant opportunity. But finding an address is not the same as having the legal right to email it. That decision, and the responsibility for it, is always yours, not LinkWise's.

UK GDPR and PECR

Two pieces of law apply to unsolicited electronic marketing in the UK:

• UK GDPR governs how personal data (which includes an individual's email address) can be lawfully processed.
• PECR (the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations) specifically governs unsolicited marketing by email, and generally requires consent before you can send marketing to an individual.

Corporate subscribers vs. individuals

This distinction matters a lot in practice:

• Corporate subscribers: a company's general inbox (e.g. info@, press@, editor@) are typically easier to contact under a "soft opt-in" or legitimate-interest basis, provided your message is relevant to their business.
• Individuals, sole traders, and some partnerships are treated more like private individuals under PECR. Contacting them for marketing purposes generally requires their prior consent. Simply finding their address publicly does not provide that consent.

LinkWise makes a best-effort guess at which category a contact falls into, based on the format of the address, but this is a heuristic, not a legal determination. When LinkWise can't confidently tell, it treats the contact as unclear and shows a warning, so apply extra caution in those cases.

Publicly available doesn't mean consented

The UK's data protection regulator (the ICO) has been explicit on this point: an email address being publicly listed on a website does not, by itself, mean the person has agreed to receive marketing. Public availability tells you how to reach someone. It says nothing about whether you're allowed to.

What this means for your outreach

Before sending anything LinkWise drafts, it's worth asking:

• Is this a genuine, relevant opportunity for the recipient, not just a pretext to pitch a link?
• Does the recipient's own site or context suggest they welcome this kind of contact (e.g. a "write for us" page, an editorial contact form)?
• If they're an individual or sole trader, do you have a proper lawful basis, such as genuine, specific consent, for contacting them?

Opt-outs

Every email LinkWise drafts includes a simple way for the recipient to say "don't contact me again." If someone does, mark that in LinkWise (via the "Opted out" status or the "Don't contact again" option). LinkWise will then permanently stop suggesting that address to your account.

This isn't legal advice

This page is a plain-language summary to help you make better decisions, not a substitute for legal advice. If you're doing outreach at any real volume, or you're unsure about a specific situation, it's worth speaking to a solicitor familiar with UK marketing law.