"How long should marketing consent last? Also how long can you really claim a legitimate interest to contact someone for? We have had a number of discussions recently with our legal team and external advice about the duration we went for and if it should, in fact, be longer. Currently, we set it for 4 years for consent and 5 for legitimate interest if the person was financially active and 3 years if not. However, its the consent side our lawyers are now saying is 4 years too short and there is no official guidance on exactly how long it should last. As a consumer if I tell someone they can contact me I would expect them to contact me until I said to stop so why should charities be different?"