Ask for consent with a clear purpose
Tell clients what you need, why you need it, and keep separate choices separate.
1 min read · Updated August 28, 2026
In short
- Ask for consent in plain language for a specific purpose.
- Keep separate uses as separate choices and record the client's actual choice.
- When consent is withdrawn, stop the use that depended on it.
Under the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector, as amended by Law 25, consent must be free, informed, given for specific purposes and requested separately. Silence, a pre-existing contact, or a completed appointment does not prove agreement to every later use.
Before you ask
- Name the information you need.
- State the precise reason for collecting it.
- Remove anything that is not necessary for that reason.
- Name the information you want and the precise reason you want it. Remove anything that is not necessary for that reason.
- Explain the choice in plain language before collecting the information. Ask separately when the use is sensitive or unexpected.
- Record the client's actual choice. Do not change an unknown status to consented because you hope to contact them.
- Respect a withdrawal from the moment you receive it. Stop the use that depended on consent while preserving only what another legal obligation requires.
- Does a booking include marketing consent?
- No. Appointment information serves the booking. Marketing is a separate purpose and needs its own valid basis and recorded choice.
- Can I use one consent for client photos and offers?
- Treat them as separate choices. Publicly showing a person's image and sending commercial messages are different purposes with different consequences.