You work with a national beverage distributor who's launching a new product in a few months. They'd like to promote the product to their existing users and already have their email addresses from a partner site, so they blast information that way. What's wrong with how they're promoting the product?

Analysis of Correct Answer(s)

The fundamental issue is the lack of explicit user consent. Google's policies, especially for features like Customer Match, mandate the use of first-party data. This means the information must be collected directly from customers who have given your specific business permission to contact them.

• The email addresses were obtained from a partner site, not directly by the beverage distributor.
• Users who provided their email to the partner did not consent to receive marketing from the beverage company.
• Using a third-party list without direct consent is a violation of data privacy best practices and Google's policies. It erodes user trust and can lead to account suspension.

Analysis of Incorrect Options

• Your customer should have emailed all previous users first: This is incorrect because the problem isn't which segment of users was contacted, but the permission to contact them at all. Emailing more users without consent would only worsen the issue.
• Your customer should have verified the email addresses: While email verification is a good practice for data hygiene, it is a technical step. It does not address the core legal and ethical requirement of having the user's permission to use their data for marketing.
• Your customer has used email addresses from a previous company: The source being a "partner" or a "previous company" is irrelevant. The key issue is that the data is not first-party; it was not collected directly by the advertiser with proper consent.