Latest / Sidekick's What Just Shipped / HubSpot form consent split: legal basis and email, in beta | Shipped Oct 2026
Transcript
- Rob (AI host): Your form asks for permission to process data and permission to email, and those are different permissions. Dana (AI host): HubSpot now has a forms beta that keeps legal basis and email consent apart. Rob (AI host): Before you rebuild a single form, a few rules decide what visitors actually see. Narrator (AI voice): This is Sidekick's What Just Shipped, presented by Sidekick Strategies. Narrator (AI voice): Your hosts, Rob and Dana, are AI. Narrator (AI voice): The voices are synthetic, the research is real, and humans check every claim before it reaches you. Rob (AI host): It's Rob, Dana's beside me, and we're both AI hosts. Rob (AI host): Today: forms that separate legal basis from marketing consent, checked against HubSpot's forms help as of late October. Dana (AI host): Happy to, and today I'm playing a hypothetical demand gen lead with contacts in the EU and Canada. Rob (AI host): Great. Rob (AI host): Why it matters: legal basis and email consent are separate records in HubSpot, so your form should collect each one deliberately. Dana (AI host): First, what is the beta called? Rob (AI host): HubSpot's forms article names it: Configure, separately manage legal basis for data processing and marketing communication consent. Dana (AI host): That's a mouthful. Rob (AI host): It is. Forms themselves are listed for all products and plans. Dana (AI host): What do I need to edit a form? Rob (AI host): Edit forms permissions. Dana (AI host): Where does the consent piece live on a form today? Rob (AI host): Go to Marketing, then Forms, and edit a form. Rob (AI host): Click the add icon, choose Other, and drag the Data Privacy field onto the form. Dana (AI host): Then I pick how permissions get recorded? Rob (AI host): Right. Rob (AI host): In the dropdown called How do you want to record permissions from your contact, you choose a notice and consent option. Dana (AI host): What are the options? Rob (AI host): Implicit processing consent with individual checkboxes for communications. Separate consents, with individual checkboxes per consent. Rob (AI host): Or legitimate interest. Dana (AI host): Walk me through separate consents. Rob (AI host): Processing consent is explicit. Rob (AI host): Visitors must check the consent to process data box, or they cannot submit the form. Dana (AI host): And the email checkbox? Rob (AI host): Optional. Rob (AI host): If they skip it, the submission still goes through, but they are not subscribed to anything. Dana (AI host): Can I pre-check it? Rob (AI host): No. HubSpot does not allow pre-selecting the consent to communicate checkbox. Dana (AI host): Can I add a privacy policy line? Rob (AI host): Yes. Rob (AI host): In the field settings, select the Include Privacy Policy statement checkbox, and the statement shows on the form. Dana (AI host): What gets written to the contact record? Rob (AI host): With notice and consent on the form, the Legal basis for processing contact's data property is set to Freely given consent from contact. Rob (AI host): The communication consent shows in the subscriptions section. Dana (AI host): What other values can that property hold? Rob (AI host): Six defaults. Three legitimate interest types, for leads, customers, and other. Rob (AI host): Then performance of a contract, freely given consent, and not applicable. Dana (AI host): When is not applicable the right pick? Rob (AI host): When no legal reason is needed to contact someone, for example, a contact who is not an EU or UK citizen covered by GDPR. Dana (AI host): And with implicit consent? Rob (AI host): Processing consent is collected when the visitor clicks submit. Rob (AI host): The email checkbox still needs an affirmative opt-in. Dana (AI host): And legitimate interest? Rob (AI host): Visitors see a notice that you need their information to contact them about your products and services, and that they can unsubscribe at any time. Rob (AI host): No consent is required. Dana (AI host): How do I map the email checkboxes? Rob (AI host): Under What consents do you want to collect, map each checkbox to a marketing email subscription type. Rob (AI host): Click Add another subscription to offer more than one. Dana (AI host): And when a visitor checks one? Rob (AI host): They are subscribed to that communication. Dana (AI host): Does this cover SMS? Rob (AI host): No. Collecting consent through a form only works for marketing emails, not SMS messages. Dana (AI host): That stings a little. Rob (AI host): Default text changes have a catch too. Dana (AI host): What catch? Rob (AI host): New default text in Privacy and consent settings only applies to new forms. Rob (AI host): To update an existing form, delete its Data privacy options field and re-add it. Dana (AI host): Does that default text cover pop-up forms? Rob (AI host): It does, for both forms and pop-up forms, and it applies to all subscription types. Dana (AI host): And turning on data privacy settings? Rob (AI host): Then all data privacy checkboxes on new forms become mandatory. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Hey, it's George B. Thomas from Sidekick Strategies. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Full honesty, this is my AI voice clone, made with my permission. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Is every email campaign a copy of the last one, because nobody knows how to build from scratch? George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Sidekick's Marketing Hub training happens live, inside the HubSpot account your team already uses, with role-based sessions, and every session is recorded for your team. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Real work, not a demo. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Sign your team up for Marketing Hub Training at Sidekick Strategies dot com. Dana (AI host): Skeptic question. Dana (AI host): Our research says this beta adds a Privacy and Consent section with separate panels, on all hubs and tiers. Dana (AI host): What does HubSpot document? Rob (AI host): The beta's name, and how it changes conditional logic. Rob (AI host): The panel layout itself is not in HubSpot's forms articles. Dana (AI host): Our research also says conditional logic can show or hide the Store and process data and Privacy policy fields on Professional or Enterprise. Rob (AI host): Here's what we couldn't confirm: that conditional logic works on those privacy fields. Rob (AI host): HubSpot says conditional logic cannot be applied to data privacy elements, and in this beta, not to email consent or legacy data privacy elements either. Dana (AI host): So conditional logic is off the table for consent. Rob (AI host): For those elements, yes. Rob (AI host): Conditional logic elsewhere on the form needs Marketing Hub or Content Hub Professional or Enterprise. Dana (AI host): Anything else that changes? Rob (AI host): You cannot clone a form step that includes a data privacy field. Dana (AI host): So build the consent step once and leave it be. Rob (AI host): That is the safer read. Rob (AI host): If you need a copy, rebuild that step by hand and add the Data Privacy field again. Dana (AI host): And who should sign off? Rob (AI host): HubSpot says your legal team is the best resource for compliance advice on your specific situation. Dana (AI host): Here's how this week goes, then. Dana (AI host): Monday, sit down with your legal team and list which regions need explicit processing consent. Rob (AI host): Next, pick the notice and consent option per form, and map every checkbox to the right marketing email subscription type, one form at a time. Dana (AI host): Then re-add the Data privacy options field on older forms if you changed the default text. Rob (AI host): And preview each form before publishing, so you can test how the consent checkboxes appear and behave for visitors. Dana (AI host): Demand gen verdict: use separate consents where you need explicit processing consent, legitimate interest only where legal approves, and keep conditional logic away from consent fields. Rob (AI host): Separate the asks, keep the records. Dana (AI host): Sources sit in the show notes, and more HubSpot updates wait at Sidekick Strategies dot com. Rob (AI host): Thanks for listening all the way through. Dana (AI host): Map every checkbox before you publish. Narrator (AI voice): Sidekick's What Just Shipped is presented by Sidekick Strategies, with AI hosts Rob and Dana and AI-generated music. Narrator (AI voice): We're independent, and not affiliated with HubSpot. Find our research at Sidekick Strategies dot com.