{"id":117435,"date":"2019-01-22T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-23T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/how-to-respect-data-privacy-in-the-digital-age\/"},"modified":"2024-12-21T05:50:09","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T10:50:09","slug":"how-to-respect-data-privacy-in-the-digital-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-ca\/insights\/blog\/analytics\/how-to-respect-data-privacy-in-the-digital-age\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Respect Data Privacy in the Digital Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

In today’s fully digital world, new laws such as GDPR<\/a> in the EU and the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018<\/a> (which goes into effect in 2020) aim to allow consumers to not only opt out of data capture but also have more control over their data and how it’s used.<\/p>\n

In theory, this type of legislation will reduce the sophistication of targeting that digital marketers<\/a> have come to rely on, and remove or reduce the prevalence of advertising that relies on personal data. With that in mind, let’s review these two laws and learn how marketers can remain compliant as they strive to address consumers in a relevant, personalized way.<\/p>\n

What is GDPR and how does it affect marketers?<\/h2>\n

Although GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is EU law, its impact is being felt by marketers across North America. It is a wide-reaching privacy act with very strong language regarding personal data, which it defines as any information related to a natural person or \u2018Data Subject\u2019 that can be used to directly or indirectly identify the person. That means any<\/em> information\u2014even something as seemingly innocuous as the capture of IP address\u2014is in the crosshairs of GDPR.<\/p>\n

Any captured user data must also be made available to the consumer on request (meaning it must be in a format that makes sense and is readable by humans) and consumers must be able to opt out. This is no small feat: prior to GDPR, many of these data points did not readily exist in a single location in a format that could be tidily boxed up and handed over to a consumer.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most alarming development for marketers is that non-compliance with GDPR comes with a stiff penalty: those found in breach of its rules can be fined 4% of annual global revenue or \u20ac20 million (whichever is greater). Clearly, these compliance factors coupled with the large fine required most EU marketers to address them prior to its in-effect date of May 25, 2018. Indeed, anyone who had EU visitors to their website, or who targeted European users with media, needed to ensure they were compliant\u2014even if they, the marketer, were based outside the EU.<\/p>\n

GDPR has changed everything\u2014and nothing<\/h2>\n

Reading this you might assume that the major data-holding companies such as Facebook, Google, and others of their kind were slapped with enormous fines in the days following GDPR’s introduction. Well, in short, no. Though there were complaints filed against Facebook, Google, WhatsApp, and Instagram almost immediately, nothing significant of note has occurred since. What did<\/em> happen, if you were paying attention, is that nearly every global website suddenly featured a “we use cookies” pop-up bar with a link to its (updated) privacy policy.<\/p>\n

\"Cookies<\/p>\n

As a user, on most of these websites you can simply click “I accept”, close out of the pop-up, or even ignore it if it doesn’t bother you. And guess what most people do? They click “I accept” or close out of it because they want their content. Jeff Bezos got to the heart of this behavior in his 2018 Letter to Amazon Shareholders:<\/p>\n

One thing I love about customers is that they are divinely discontent. Their expectations are never static\u2014they go up. It’s human nature. We didn’t ascend from our hunter-gatherer days by being satisfied. People have a voracious appetite for a better way, and yesterday’s ‘wow’ quickly becomes today’s ‘ordinary’.<\/p>\n