A company wishes to use personal data of their customers. They wish to start sending all female customers a customized newsletter. What right do all data subjects have in this scenario?

The company's action of segmenting customers by gender to send a customized newsletter is a form of profiling for direct marketing purposes. Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Article 21(2) grants data subjects an absolute right to object at any time to the processing of their personal data for such marketing. This right is unconditional and, once exercised, the personal data can no longer be processed for these purposes. The definition of profiling in Article 4(4) includes using personal data to evaluate or predict personal preferences and interests, which directly applies to creating a customized newsletter based on a personal characteristic like gender.

A. The right to rectification: This right applies when personal data is inaccurate or incomplete, which is not the issue described in the scenario.
B. The right to compensation: This right is contingent upon suffering material or non-material damage from a GDPR infringement, not a primary right against a proposed processing activity.

1. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 (General Data Protection Regulation), Article 21, Paragraph 2: "Where personal data are processed for direct marketing purposes, the data subject shall have the right to object at any time to processing of personal data concerning him or her for such marketing, which includes profiling to the extent that it is related to such direct marketing."

2. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation), Article 4, Paragraph 4: Defines 'profiling' as "any form of automated processing of personal data consisting of the use of personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person, in particular to analyse or predict aspects concerning that natural person's... personal preferences, interests...".

3. Bygrave, L. A. (2020). Article 21 Right to object. In C. Kuner, L. A. Bygrave, C. Docksey, & R. Drechsler (Eds.), The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): A Commentary (pp. 519-533). Oxford University Press. This commentary confirms that the right to object to processing for direct marketing purposes, including related profiling, is absolute (Section 21.21).