Just a few days ago, the Court of Justice of the EU weighed in on a case involving the French railway company SNCF Connect, which systematically required customers to select 'Monsieur' or 'Madame' when purchasing train tickets online. Why? To personalise communications.

In the world of GDPR, less is more, and the principle of data minimisation takes centre stage.

Here's the issue:

The Court reiterated that data collected must be strictly necessary for its purpose. And gender identity has no bearing on whether you can buy a train ticket or board a train. Using this data to tailor commercial messages is not "objectively indispensable" to the service.

What Does This Mean for Your Business?

If you're collecting personal data, ask yourself:

- Is it truly necessary for the service or product?

- Can I achieve the same goal in a less intrusive way?

- Could the data you're collecting create unnecessary barriers or misunderstandings with your customers?

This ruling is a clear signal: the days of collecting unnecessary personal data are over.