How to handle requests for deletion vs suppression?
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Deletion and suppression aren't the same thing, and you often need both. This is one of the most common compliance mistakes email marketers make.
Deletion means removing a subscriber's personal data: their name, email, behavioral history, preferences. After deletion, they shouldn't have a profile anywhere in your stack.
Suppression means keeping the minimum data necessary to prevent you from contacting them again. Usually that's just their email address, stored in a list your ESP checks before every send.
Why you need suppression even after deletion: if you delete everything and they later resubscribe through your signup form, you'll email them again. Under GDPR and CAN-SPAM, that could be a compliance failure.
The correct workflow for an erasure request: delete the profile data, then add the email to a suppression list. The suppression record doesn't need personal data beyond the address. Many ESPs maintain this as a global unsubscribe list automatically.
A standard unsubscribe is different from an erasure. When someone unsubscribes, you suppress them from that list. You might still be able to contact them about transactional matters. An erasure request under GDPR's right to be forgotten is broader: they want to be gone entirely.
If you use multiple sub-processors, erasure requests need to cascade to those systems too. Check that your process covers all of them, not just your main ESP.
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