Legal basis for processing is a HubSpot contact property, available when data privacy settings are turned on, that records the lawful reason you hold and use a contact’s data, such as consent or legitimate interest. It supports compliance with laws like the GDPR.
Privacy laws such as the GDPR require a lawful basis for processing personal data. When data privacy settings are enabled in HubSpot, contacts gain a legal basis property, and forms can capture consent alongside subscription choices. The legal basis can also be set by import, workflow or integration.
Legal basis and subscription types answer different questions. Legal basis says why you may hold and process the contact’s data at all. Subscription types say which kinds of marketing email the contact has agreed to receive. A contact can have a valid legal basis but be unsubscribed from newsletters, and the reverse should not happen.
Problems usually come from gaps. Forms that collect data from people in regulated regions without a consent option. Imports that create contacts with no legal basis recorded. Workflows that email contacts whose basis is missing. Each gap is small on its own, but together they make it hard to show a regulator or a customer how you handle data.
Decide, with legal advice, which basis applies to each way contacts enter the portal, and set it automatically at that point. Then check regularly for contacts with no basis or no subscription status. This page explains how HubSpot stores the information; it is not legal advice.
Kestrel Learning, a fictional training provider selling into Europe, found that contacts from partner webinars arrived by import with no legal basis. The team added the basis and the source to each import file, and created a weekly view of new contacts missing a basis so gaps were caught early.
HubSpot only shows the property when data privacy settings are turned on. Whether you need it depends on the laws that apply to your contacts. Ask your legal advisor.
No. Legal basis covers why you may process a contact’s data at all. Subscription types cover which marketing emails they agreed to receive. You need to manage both.
Ancil connects to HubSpot read-only in about 60 seconds. Nothing changes in your portal without your approval.