GDPR Contd. - Handling Lawful Bases for Your Customers using Zoho CRM.

GDPR Contd. - Handling Lawful Bases for Your Customers using Zoho CRM.

Hello folks,  

Continuing from our previous GDPR post, we bring to you the first cut of GDPR centric enhancements that are released for handling lawful bases for your customers in Zoho CRM. For your understanding we have split the entire process into three sections:
  1. Identifying Data Processing Basis
  2. Updating the Data Processing Basis in Zoho CRM 
  3. Consent Management in Zoho CRM
1. Identifying Data Processing Basis
The fundamental principle to handle the personal data of your data subjects is to process the data lawfully and fairly, in a transparent manner. As a data controller, based on your business requirements and the purpose of data processing, you can choose and update the Data Processing Basis from the following options : 
  • Legitimate interest
  • Vital interest
  • Public interest
  • Contract
  • Legal Obligation
  • Consent
You can choose 'Not applicable' for the records if GDPR does not apply. 

2. Updating the Data Processing Basis in Zoho CRM
The first thing you need to do is enable GDPR in your Zoho CRM account. You can do this by going to Setup > Users and Control > Compliance Settings. In the Compliance Settings page, toggle on the button for GDPR Compliance and select the modules that contain information of your data subjects. 

The Data Processing Basis for all data subjects in your CRM account will be marked as 'Not Applicable' by default. After identifying the appropriate data processing basis, you can update the same in Zoho CRM in the following ways:
  1. Update individual records manually. Once you enable GDPR in your Zoho CRM account, a new tab called "Data Privacy" will appear in the Record details page where you can manually update the Data Processing Basis.

  2. Mass update the records from custom list views.
  3. Go to Setup > Users and Control > Compliance Settings > Overview. Under the section Not applicable (since all your records are marked as not applicable), click View and you can mass update the records.

As a data controller, you can define under what Data Processing Basis you want the new records to be marked going forward. A new field called 'Source' in the record details page which will store your data sources such as Web forms, APIs, Integrations, etc. By default all records will fall under the 'Not Applicable' basis. Using this and other attributes of the record, you can write workflow rules to update corresponding Data Processing Basis before the data moves further in CRM.

Please ensure the utmost care while editing the Data Processing Basis of a record. Changing from one lawful basis to another holds its own set of rules and requirements under the GDPR. 

3. Consent Management in Zoho CRM
One of the six lawful bases to process the personal data of your customers is 'Consent'. You can opt for Consent, when none of the other five lawful bases are appropriate. Once you have chosen the data processing basis as Consent, you need to get a proper consent from your subjects to process their data lawfully. 

Please take legal precautions before getting consent from your subjects. Because, if you have obtained personal data unlawfully, it could be unlawful for you to even send an email requesting consent. You must ensure that requesting consent by email is lawful. 

A new section called Consent Details appears under the Data Privacy tab for records that are marked as 'Consent'. The status of these data subjects will be updated as 'Pending' by default. 

You can obtain consent from your data subjects in the following ways:
  1. Update Manually: When you get a consent from your subject through a call or personal email, you can update the consent status manually. 
  2. Update Automatically using Consent Form: You can obtain consent from your subjects using a consent form that you can customize inside Zoho CRM. The fully customizable consent form allows you to get consent for:
  • The purpose of data collection and processing
  • Preferred communication channel
 You can set up the consent form by going to Setup > Users and Control >  Compliance Settings > Consent Form. 

Once you have customized the consent form, you can add the form's link in an email template and send it individually or mass email it to data subjects whom you require consent. 

You can also go to Setup > Users and Control > Compliance settings > Overview. You can view the records that fall under each consent status. Click Show Records under Pending, select the records and click Send Consent Form button.

You can update the consent status for new data subjects either manually or you can set up a workflow rule to send the consent email, which can be triggered based on the source, country and other attributes of a lead or a contact. 

You can track the status of the Data Processing Basis and Consent for your Data Subjects from the Overview dashboard in Compliance settings. 

We hope that you find these timely enhancements very useful. Feel free to share your feedback or queries by commenting below. And do watch this space for more GDPR centric enhancements in Zoho CRM. 

For more reference:
The content presented herein is not to be construed as legal advise. Please contact your legal advisor to know how GDPR impacts your organisation and what you need to do to comply with the GDPR.

    • Recent Topics

    • %PaymentLink%

      Does not work. Software creates a BAD link. ....and yes payment options are turned on. Link on the invoice pdf once opened will work but this template is a joke.

    • Google Photos

      I am hoping that my question already has a fix. I current have Google synced accounts that I want to get away from. One in particular on is Google photos. Is there any software, or 3rd parties that I can join to back my photos up straight to specifically designated file in the ZOHO cloud that's tied to Docs? Please advise... Mike 

    • How to block a WhatsApp user for sending spam

      Is there a way to block those whatsapp users that just come to play and annoy our service, they also spam us. We have a waba service with sales iq

    • Zoho Books Items Categorisation/Grouping/Folder

      Is there a way to do items categorisation? a folder structure? Product Type A - Option 1/2/3 Product Type B - Option 1/2/3 Current problem : I have more than 50 items on the list, its hard for team to navigate.

    • Cash payments before invoice date

      We have been using zoho books for our hospitality business for some time and have been very happy with the system. However in 2025 an update was pushed through and we are now not able to record payments for invoices before the invoice date. the case scenario

    • Copy / Duplicate Workflow

      I have workflows setup that are very similar to each other. We have a monitoring system watching servers, and all notifications - no matter what client it is about - will come from a  noreply@ address which is not very helpful in having it auto assigned to the right account. I have setup a workflow that will change the contact name of the ticket (currently it would say noreply@) to the correct customer which is based on the subject line, as that mentions which server the alert it is about. I need

    • Transfer between two customers (Peters Rental account to Peters Private account)

      we are a Property Management company. Our customers have to accounts (registered as two customers - Peter Rental and Peter Private On the rental account all income and costs fron rental activities are noted. On the private account all private are noted

    • Automation#18: Automatically Fetch Values from Contacts to the Tickets Module

      Hello Everyone, Welcome to this week's edition, where you can seamlessly sync fields from the Contacts to the Tickets module. For efficient business operations, it's crucial to have details mapped across different modules. Zylker Secure offers antivirus

    • Charge multiple invoices

      We use auto-charge/recurring invoicing for 100's of clients. If we create a single manual invoice we can charge it to the credit card for these clients with the CC added to their recurring invoices. If a client has multiple outstanding invoices, is there a way to make one charge for all of the invoices instead of a separate charge to the cc for each invoice?

    • Handling/tracking escalation management in Zoho

      Hi all, I am working on finding a tool to register and track our escalation management process. Specifically, this is about client escalations, typically related to project delivery issues. The idea is that we could have some sort of form with core questions

    • Global Choice List share ownership

      I have created several forms that use one or more Global Choice Lists. These lists have been published to Org. I would like to allow one or more admins to edit the choices in these lists. Any help appreciated. Geoff

    • Setting up property management in Zoho Books

      Hi, I run a property management business that manages property complexes. There are multiple owners, some owning more than one property on the same complex. My role is to manage the fees they pay for maintenance of common areas, such as the swimming pool

    • How to prevent users from switching price lists in an order?

      Hi, I have Zoho Finance integrated with Zoho CRM. My team will be placing orders through the CRM using the Finance module. When creating a new customer I will assign it a price list, I don't want the sales rep to switch to a different Price List, other

    • Mollie Connect in Zoho Books

      Have noticed that Zoho Books is missing the most popular payment provider in Europe: Mollie. Knowing that Mollie has a solid Java SDK, why is this not yet implemented in Zoho Books for European customers?  More info: https://docs.mollie.com/oauth/ov

    • Unable to change Lookup field from Multi Select to Single Select

      I am trying to change a Lookup field in my Zoho Creator form from Multi Select to Single Select, but I am unable to find any option to do this.

    • Simple Callback Notifications Needed

      My team are terrible at remembering their CRM callbacks, often due to how long in the future they are set for. Is there a way i can set an e-mail notification for when a callback is due? For example we set it for 9am one day and five minutes before they

    • Personal Data (RODO), Cookies / Trackers - ePrivacy

      I have noticed several issues that should be addressed on the customer support page. Zoho Desk provides the support portal, but it currently lacks the following options: A GDPR and personal data processing consent checkbox before logging in, located in

    • How to set a multi-lookup field as mandatory?

    • Allow Multiple Scheduled Appointments with Zoho Support

      Dear Zoho Team, I hope you're doing well. First, thank you for introducing the option to schedule support calls via the Zoho CRM booking link. This has been a fantastic enhancement, eliminating the need for back-and-forth coordination when scheduling

    • Audit Log for Zoho One Admin Panel

      Dear Zoho One Team, We would like to request the addition of an Audit Log feature in the Zoho One Admin Panel. This log should provide visibility into any changes made within the Zoho One admin panel and directory, including but not limited to: Adding,

    • Personalize your booking pages with Custom CSS

      Greetings from the Zoho Bookings team! We’re introducing Custom CSS for Zoho Bookings, designed to give you complete control over the look and feel of your booking pages. With this new feature, you can upload your own CSS file to customize colors, fonts,

    • Bug: OAuth 2.0 State Parameter fails with Pipe Delimiters (RFC 6749 Non-Compliance)

      I've discovered a bug in how Zoho's API Console handles the OAuth 2.0 authorization flow when the state parameter contains pipe characters (|), and I'm hoping the Zoho team can address this in a future update. The Issue Zoho's OAuth 2.0 implementation

    • Custom Function to increment a value by one

      Hi, I'm trying to find a solution to set up a counter on CRM records that tracks how many times certain actions have taken place. As a specific example: We have a field on Deals called "Times Close Updated". This starts at 0 on record creation. I'd like

    • Customer address in Zoho Bookings

      Hello,  Is it possible to add customer address information to the Zoho bookings appointment screen? Or have it pull that information automatically from the CRM? We are wanting to use this as a field management software but it is difficult to pull the address from multiple sources when it would be ideal to have a clickable address on the appointment screen that opens up the user's maps.  It would also be advantageous for the "list view" to show appointment times instead of just duration and booking

    • Access token generate from the refresh token not working for API

      Dear Sir/Madam, When I use my refresh token to obtain new access_token, that token return INVALID_TOKEN when the same API is called. I made sure that my api site is correct and match the auth web site. However the original access_token work fine.

    • why does my campaign move back to draft?

      Every time I try to send my email campaign, it reverts back to Draft status.. this has happened three times in a row..how do i find out what the problem is? Thanks

    • Service and Parts Line Item Limitations

      Hi FSM Team, We work with clients who deliver large-scale field service projects. In many cases, a single work order can contain 200+ service and parts line items. Currently, Zoho FSM limits work orders to 30 service and parts line items. While this works

    • 【Zoho CRM】やりとりの要約機能リリースのお知らせ

      ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの藤澤です。 今回は「Zoho CRM アップデート情報」の中から、新機能のやりとり要約機能をご紹介します。 Zoho CRMのやりとりの要約は、Ziaが生成する機能で、データに関連付けられた最近のやりとりを簡潔にまとめて提供します。 メール、通話、ミーティング、メモなどを1つの明確な要約にまとめ、重要なポイント、過去の話し合いの要点、結果、次のステップを表示することで、日常的な課題に対処します。 Ziaの強みは、単なる要約にとどまらず、内容の解釈も行える点です。やりとりの要約では、顧客との会話に潜む遅延、フォローアップ漏れ、約束、期限、感情、意図を特定します。

    • Recent post analytics not very useful

      Hi, I'm enjoying some aspects of the Zoho Social. like being able to schedule posts to multiple channels. However, the recent posts analytics is disappointing. For example, I put up a reel on Instagram and Facebook yesterday. Instagram insights shows

    • Zoho Commerce and Third-party shipping (MachShip) API integration

      We are implementing a third-party shipping (MachShip) API integration for our Zoho Commerce store and have made significant progress. However, we need guidance on a specific technical challenge. Current Challenge: We need to get the customer input to

    • What happens to the files created by user, whose account is deleted.

      Hello, I created a folder in the My folders names "Quote" I shared the same with my colleague. She created some files and folders in that folder over the period of 1 and half year. Now she left company, and I deleted her account from Zoho. What happens

    • Internal Error When Accessing Team Inbox.

      All our users are seeing this error in teaminbox. Because its a critical tool kindly resolve this issue ASAP.

    • Sharing URLs and direct access

      Hello, I am storing my team's email signature images on Workdrive. I am creating a public image download share and adding “?directDownload=true” so that the image can be accessed without the Workdrive interface. A few questions: 1) Can we generate friendly

    • Zoho Mail Android app update: Calendar enhancements

      Hello everyone! In the most recent version of the Zoho Mail Android app update, we have introduced various new enhancements for the calendar module. Let's explore what's new. Drag and drop events to update the date and time We have enhanced the calendar

    • Enhance Delay Configuration in Zoho Flow

      Dear Zoho Flow Support Team, We are writing to request an improvement to the delay configuration process within Zoho Flow. Currently, users are required to manually enter the exact delay duration (e.g., "2 days") in the delay block. This can be time-consuming

    • Contratação ProdutivosX

      Bem-vindo(a) ao processo de contratação da ProdutivosX. Este formulário tem como objetivo coletar informações essenciais para análise de perfil profissional, alinhamento de competências e possível integração ao equipamento ProdutivosX. A ProdutivosX é

    • Zoho Books - How to Invoke a Custom Function in Schedulers

      We have multiple schedulers that send emails to customers in batches. Currently, we are maintaining the same code across several schedulers. Is it possible to use a custom function inside a scheduler script? If yes, how can we invoke the custom function

    • Enhance Sign CRM integration

      Hello all, I'm working on a custom Deluge script to enhance the integration between Zoho CRM and Sign by using a writer merge template for additional flexibility. I want to replicate the post-sign document integration that exists between CRM and Sign

    • Unified WhatsApp Number Management in Zoho Desk and SalesIQ

      Dear Zoho Desk Support Team, We are currently utilizing both Zoho Desk and Zoho SalesIQ for our customer support operations. While both platforms offer WhatsApp integration, we are facing challenges due to the requirement of separate WhatsApp numbers

    • Problem using Zoho Desk API

      Goodmorning, I am trying to use the Zoho Desk API to create a dashboard in Grafana, but I am having a problem. Following the instructions in the API documentation, I created the API Console application (server-based application). Then I created the string

    • Next Page