Compliance, GDPR & Unsubscribes

Cold B2B email is legal across the EU, UK, US, and Norway — but it comes with rules you need to follow. This covers how unsubscribes work in Swokei, what GDPR's "legitimate interest" means for your outreach, and the simple steps that keep you compliant.

Is B2B cold email legal?

Yes, cold B2B email to businesses and professionals at work addresses is legal in most jurisdictions including the EU under GDPR, the UK under PECR, the US under CAN-SPAM, and Canada under CASL. The key is that you're contacting business addresses ([email protected]) about services relevant to their business, not emailing personal consumer addresses.

The rules are much stricter for B2C outreach — targeting personal consumer email addresses. If your prospects are individuals rather than businesses, you'll typically need explicit opt-in consent before sending commercial email. Swokei is built for B2B agency outreach and should not be used for consumer email marketing.

• Legal: Email to business addresses about services relevant to their work
• Requires consent: Email to personal consumer addresses for commercial offers (in most of Europe and UK)
• Essential: Clear identification, easy opt-out, and immediate honour of unsubscribe requests

Your five compliance responsibilities

1. Only contact business addresses

Target role-based business emails and professional decision-makers. Swokei's Lead Finder only returns business listings — not personal consumer addresses — so if you're using the tool for discovery, you're starting in the right place.

2. Include your identity in every email

Every outbound email must clearly show who you are and your company. Set up your full name and company name in your mailbox signature. Go to Mailboxes → [your mailbox] → General → Signature and include your name, company, and a contact method.

3. Make opting out easy

Swokei automatically includes an unsubscribe mechanism in all outbound emails — you cannot override this. The AI-generated emails also include soft opt-out language like "if this isn't relevant, just let me know." When writing custom follow-ups, add a sentence like: "Happy to stop reaching out if this isn't relevant — just reply and let me know."

4. Honour opt-outs within 24 hours

Swokei handles automatic unsubscribes within minutes of detecting them in replies. For manual requests received outside the app (a phone call, LinkedIn message), mark them as unsubscribed in Swokei the same day.

5. Don't re-add unsubscribed contacts

When building new lead lists, Swokei automatically flags previously unsubscribed addresses. If you import them into a new campaign, they'll be skipped. Always review your lead lists before launching large campaigns to avoid re-contacting people who've opted out.

How automatic unsubscribe detection works

When someone replies asking to be removed — using words like "unsubscribe," "please stop," "remove me," etc. — Swokei's AI reads the message and classifies it as Unsubscribe. All remaining follow-ups for that lead are cancelled immediately within minutes. You don't need to do anything manually.

Manually marking an unsubscribe

If someone requests removal through a channel outside Swokei, mark them manually:

1. Click "Inbox" in the sidebar.
2. Find and click the reply (or search by email address) to open it.
3. In the CRM panel on the right, click the "Classification" dropdown near the top.
4. Select "Unsubscribe". The change saves instantly and all future follow-ups stop.

Alternatively, if you need to unsubscribe someone directly from a campaign:

1. Open the campaign and find the lead in the lead table.
2. Click on the lead row to expand its detail panel.
3. Click the "Unsubscribe" option in the lead actions and confirm.
4. The lead's status changes to Unsubscribed and all sequences stop.

Once a contact is marked as unsubscribed, their address is added to a suppression list and no further emails from any campaign in your workspace will be sent to them — not even in future campaigns.

GDPR's "legitimate interest" basis explained

GDPR doesn't require consent for all commercial email. The "legitimate interest" basis allows B2B cold outreach when three conditions are met: the contact is a business professional, the service is relevant to their role or business, and you give them a clear way to opt out. Swokei's workflow is designed around this legal basis — you send relevant, personalized outreach to business contacts with easy opt-out. This is the lawful foundation for most B2B agency outreach in the EU.

CAN-SPAM compliance for US recipients

For emails to US recipients, CAN-SPAM requires:

• Accurate subject lines — no deceptive framing
• A physical mailing address in the email — include yours in your email signature
• Honouring opt-out requests within 10 business days (Swokei does this automatically and immediately within minutes)

How Swokei handles unsubscribe links

Swokei automatically includes an unsubscribe mechanism in all outbound emails as required by law. You cannot disable or remove this mechanism. When someone clicks the unsubscribe link or replies requesting removal, they're added to a suppression list and no further emails are sent to that address from any campaign in your workspace.

Data retention and deletion

Your account data (leads, campaigns, replies, CRM data) is retained for the lifetime of your account plus a short grace period after cancellation. If you delete your account, data is removed from active systems within 30 days. For a formal data deletion request regarding specific data, contact support with your account email and details of what you want removed.