PECR (the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003) is the UK law governing electronic marketing messages, cookies, and similar technologies, requiring prior opt-in consent before a business sends marketing emails or texts to individuals - including contacts captured via guest WiFi.
PECR - the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 - is the UK law that governs electronic marketing messages, cookies and similar technologies. It derives from the EU ePrivacy Directive and sits alongside the UK GDPR: GDPR governs how you collect and handle personal data in general, while PECR governs the specific act of sending a marketing email, SMS or call. A venue capturing emails through guest WiFi must satisfy both.
For marketing to individuals, PECR requires prior opt-in consent: the guest must actively agree (an unticked box they choose to tick) before you send any marketing email or text, and every message must include a working opt-out. Consent language on the splash page should say who is sending, what kind of messages, and roughly how often - vague "receive communications" wording is weak consent.
PECR allows a "soft opt-in" exception: if contact details were collected in the course of a sale or negotiations for a sale, you may market similar products without explicit consent, provided an opt-out was offered at collection and in every message. A free WiFi sign-in is generally not a sale, so venues should not rely on soft opt-in for portal-captured addresses - explicit consent is the safe and standard basis, which is why compliant WiFi platforms build the opt-in checkbox into the sign-in flow.
For the full picture see the GDPR-compliant WiFi guide and the guest WiFi GDPR compliance checklist.
GDPR & guest WiFi refers to the UK and EU data-protection rules that apply when a venue captures personal data via a captive portal - requiring lawful basis, opt-in consent, an accessible privacy notice, audit trail, and the right to erasure.
Opt-in rate is the percentage of people who actively consent to receive marketing communications during a sign-up flow, such as ticking the unticked marketing checkbox on a WiFi splash page.
WiFi email capture is the technique of collecting a guest's email address as a condition of free WiFi access, typically through a captive portal's sign-in form, so the venue can send marketing communications afterwards.
First-party data is customer information a business collects directly from its own audience with consent, through its own channels such as WiFi sign-ins, its website, bookings, or POS, as opposed to data bought from or shared by other companies.
Capture guest emails, run automated email/SMS campaigns, and grow Google reviews - all from your existing WiFi.