Art.7 Conditions for consent
Where processing rests on consent, be able to demonstrate that the data subject consented. Where the consent request forms part of a wider written declaration, present it in a manner clearly distinguishable from the other matters, in an intelligible and easily accessible form, using clear and plain language. Inform the data subject before consenting that consent may be withdrawn at any time, make withdrawal as easy as giving consent, and treat processing carried out before withdrawal as still lawful. Consent is not freely given where performance of a contract, including provision of a service, is made conditional on consent to processing that the contract does not require.
Source: GDPR, Art.7. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open GDPR in the compliance library.
Many articles apply only where their condition is met (a data protection officer under Article 37, an impact assessment under Article 35, a representative under Article 27); the condition is in each statement.
These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.
system holds itEvidence a system already holds
none for this control
periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review
- Consent records capturing who consented, when, to what wording, and through what mechanism · Data governance / DLP tooling
- The consent wording and interface as presented, versioned, so an old record can be tied to what was actually shown · Data governance / DLP tooling
- The withdrawal mechanism, with evidence it works and takes no more steps than giving consent did · Data governance / DLP tooling
- Evidence that consent requests bundled inside terms or a wider declaration are visually and textually separated · Data governance / DLP tooling
governing documentDocuments that govern the control
- Per service, the analysis of which processing is genuinely necessary for the contract and which rests on consent · Vendor register / contract repository
First move
Common gaps auditors find
- Consent logged as a boolean with no record of the wording shown, so the organisation cannot demonstrate what was agreed to
- Withdrawal routed through a support ticket or a postal address while giving consent was a single click
- Service access blocked on consent to analytics or marketing the service does not need
- Pre-ticked boxes, silence, or continued use of a site treated as consent
Do this for your whole sheet
Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.
Build my evidence sheetArt.6 Lawfulness of processing · Art.8 Conditions applicable to child's consent