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Migrating web push consents from another system to ECDP

Web push consents collected in another tool can be transferred to ECDP instead of being collected again. This article explains what the migration needs, how to start it, and what changes once it’s done.

Can web push consents be migrated?

Yes, but only if the web push system you currently use allows the consent data to be exported.

Knowing that a customer granted consent isn’t enough to transfer it. A customer grants web push consent in response to a prompt shown in the browser, and the consent is tied to that browser on that device. A subscription is created along with the consent, and that subscription is what ECDP needs to deliver a notification. Without it, the consent has nothing to point to.

What the migration needs

Transferring consents requires the technical data from the web push system you currently use:

  • VAPID Public Key and VAPID Private Key – the pair of keys that authorizes sending notifications to the existing subscriptions.
  • Endpoint – the address where the browser push service receives notifications for a given subscription.
  • P256DH – the public encryption key of the subscription.
  • Auth – the authentication key of the subscription.
  • The name of the system the consents are moving from, for example PushPushGo, Samba, EMP or another web push platform.

Endpoint, P256DH and Auth are technical values stored by the browser and used to deliver web push notifications. They are needed for every subscription that is to be transferred.

Why isn’t the service worker enough?

This is the question customers ask most often. Adding the ECDP service worker file to your website, described in Web push channel configuration:

  • Lets you collect new web push consents from people who subscribe from that moment on.
  • Doesn’t transfer historical subscriptions.

Web push subscriptions aren’t stored in the service worker file. They live in the browsers of your customers and at the push service provider. That’s why the existing subscription data must be imported separately, even when the service worker is already in place.

What happens after the migration

Once the import is done:

  • Customers keep the web push consents they granted and don’t have to opt in again.
  • You can continue communicating over web push from ECDP.
  • On the next visits of customers to your website, ECDP tries to link the anonymous web push subscription with a customer profile, for example by email address. This works only if customer identification is implemented on your site.
  1. Contact your account manager and tell them which system you’re migrating the consents from.
  2. Hand over the technical data listed in What the migration needs through the channel your account manager indicates. A plain Excel file is enough.

The subscription data import, the VAPID key configuration and the migration check are handled on the ExpertSender side.

We only have a list of email addresses. Is that enough?

No. A list of email addresses doesn’t contain the subscription itself, so there is nothing to send a notification to. The migration needs the technical subscription data: Endpoint, P256DH, Auth and the VAPID keys. Without them, customers must grant their web push consent again through an opt-in prompt on your website.

We’ve already added the ECDP service worker. Have the consents been transferred?

No. The service worker only handles new sign-ups collected from the moment it goes live. Consents granted earlier stay outside ECDP until the subscription data is imported.

No, this isn’t possible in ECDP. A web push notification needs a real subscription created by the browser of the customer. A consent on its own, without that subscription, can’t be assigned to a customer.

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