Email marketingBenchmark Email and the GDPR: agreement, role and data location.
Benchmark Email is a email marketing tool. Most customers use it as a processor, it publishes its data processing agreement, and the data location depends on your account. Below: what to check and how to declare it.
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In short
- Category
- Email marketing
- Usual role
- Usually a processor
- Data location
- Set per account or project
- Agreement
- Published by the vendor
What does Benchmark Email do with personal data?
Manage mailing lists and deliver marketing campaigns. That is how Privacyboard describes a typical use of Benchmark Email, as a starting point you can edit.
The data usually involved: names, email addresses, subscription preferences, campaign content and engagement data where enabled.
Is Benchmark Email a processor or a controller?
Most customers use Benchmark Email as a processor: it handles personal data on their instructions, for the purposes they set. That is the common reading for email marketing tools and it is what Privacyboard suggests.
As a processor, it needs a written agreement with you under Article 28, and you should know which subprocessors it uses. Confirm the role against your own agreement, because the way you use a tool can change it.
Where does Benchmark Email store personal data?
Benchmark Email does not have one fixed location for every customer. The location depends on the plan, the account and the services you enable.
How to find yours: Check your account settings or Benchmark Email’s data processing terms for where your data is stored.
Even when the main location is in the EU, ask whether subprocessors or support access involve a transfer outside the EEA, and record it if so.
Does Benchmark Email have a data processing agreement?
Checked on 1 November 2026. Vendors change their pages, so check the date.
Yes. Benchmark Email publishes the text of its data processing agreement on its own website. Article 28 of the GDPR requires a written contract with every processor, so this is the document to read and keep.
What we noted when we opened the page: Data Processing Addendum, last updated July 10, 2026, forming part of the Terms of Use. Annex names Polaris Software, Inc. as importer. Data may be processed worldwide; sub-processors include AWS in the USA and Japan; SCCs used.
A page that exists does not mean you are covered. Whether the agreement applies to you depends on your plan and on what you accepted, so record the decision yourself in your vendor list.
Read the Benchmark Email agreementHow to declare Benchmark Email
- 1
In your privacy policy
Name Benchmark Email as a recipient, say what it is used for (manage mailing lists and deliver marketing campaigns) and mention any transfer outside the EEA. Articles 13 and 14 ask you to tell people who receives their data.
- 2
In your vendor list
Add Benchmark Email with its purpose, the data involved, its role, its region and a link to the agreement. Privacyboard prefills all of this, you confirm or correct it.
- 3
In your processing register
Link Benchmark Email to the activities that use it, so each record shows its recipients. Article 30 asks the register to list the categories of recipients.
What to check before relying on Benchmark Email
- Keep proof of consent and a working unsubscribe for every list.
- Check what engagement tracking is on, such as opens and clicks, and mention it in your policy.
- Record the region and any transfer outside the EEA.
- Make sure you can find and erase one subscriber across lists.
Questions, answered.
Is Benchmark Email GDPR compliant?
Privacyboard does not certify vendors. Compliance depends on how Benchmark Email is configured and used, on the agreement you have with it and on your own practices. What can be checked is documented here: it publishes a data processing agreement, the usual role and the data location. Read the agreement itself before relying on it.
Does Benchmark Email have a DPA?
Yes. Benchmark Email publishes the text of its data processing agreement on its own website. Article 28 of the GDPR requires a written contract with every processor, so this is the document to read and keep. You can read it at https://www.benchmarkemail.com/data-processing-addendum/.
Is Benchmark Email a data processor?
Usually, yes. Most customers use Benchmark Email as a processor that acts on their instructions. Check your own agreement and how you use the tool, because the role can differ.
Where does Benchmark Email store data?
Benchmark Email does not have one fixed location for every customer. The location depends on the plan, the account and the services you enable. How to find yours: Check your account settings or Benchmark Email’s data processing terms for where your data is stored.
Do I need to mention Benchmark Email in my privacy policy?
Yes, if Benchmark Email handles personal data for you. The GDPR asks you to tell people who receives their data (Articles 13 and 14). Name the vendor or its category, say what it is used for and mention any transfer outside the EEA.
How do I add Benchmark Email to my vendor list?
In Privacyboard, pick Benchmark Email from the catalog. The purpose, the data, the suggested role and a link to its agreement are prefilled, and you confirm each one. Creating a workspace is free.
Privacyboard is not affiliated with Benchmark Email. Names and logos belong to their owners and are used only to identify the tool. This page summarises public documents as checked on 1 November 2026; it is guidance, not legal advice, and it does not certify any vendor.