Personal data are often referred to as the "new gold". For the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA; Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens), the trade in personal data is one of the spearheads of its supervisory framework for 2018 and 2019. The DPA recently published new questions and answers in the field of marketing: "Are the persons in question your customers? If not, you usually need consent to collect their personal data and use them for direct marketing by post." The DPA takes a restrictive view in this regard.