The GDPR takes seriously how you collect consents to process personal  data of EU citizens. The participation in a workshop gives you a legal  right to work with a personal data of the attendee. However, there are  more:

  • for example, you must collect separate consents for processing personal data and subscribing to a newsletter
  • an attendee can request anytime to review what consents were given, and how they were collected.

In Workshop Butler, there is a specialized field Consent to deal with the above scenarios.

Apparently, a Consent field is a checkbox for your visitors to check. Similar to a Checkbox field, you use HTML markup to create a field’s description. It is easy  to add a link to a privacy policy or highlight some words. A Consent field is added like any other custom field to a registration form.

Though it looks identical to a Checkbox field, the difference lies in how it is stored and used.

For all custom fields, Workshop Butler records only the provided values. For example, you added a new field Years of Experience. During the registration, attendee Anna Smith set it to 5. Later you changed it to Experience Level. Now in your cabinet, you see Experience Level: 5 at the profile of Anna Smith.

The behaviour is different for consents. The platform records both  the value (yes or no) and the content of a consent at the time of the  registration. If you change it later, it will be valid only for new  attendees.

Let’s look at the example. You created a consent field with this content:

I understand and accept that my personal information is stored in  Workshop Butler for training related communications and invoicing  purposes.

When Anna registers and gives her consent, it is recorded and visible to you in the interface.

Example of Consent
Example of consent

If you decide to change the content of the consent to something like this:

I understand and accept that my personal information is stored in Workshop Butler for training related communications.

the platform will use an updated content for new registrations but keeps the old one for Anna.

In addition to the content of a consent, the platform also records  the name of a person provided the consent, and the exact date/time. When  attendees register themselves, their names are recorded. When you add  attendees manually or import them, then it is your name recorded.

You collected the consent, but can you use it further? Yes. In  Workshop Butler, you can subscribe attendees to MailChimp lists or  invite to Slack groups based on the consents they give to you.

MailChimp Settings
MailChimp Settings

Added consents are available via Workshop Butler API.

Our website integration widgets and a plugin for Wordpress support  them natively for all types of businesses: knowledge brands, training  companies, and individual trainers. If you use them for accepting  registrations, all you need to do is to open your account and add new Consent fields.