What is GDPR and how will it affect my marketing activities?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) is a regulation by which the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission intend to strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals within the European Union (EU).

GDPR will require organisations to respect and protect personal data that is held, from individuals, no matter where is stored or how it was acquired. It is a very important change regarding individual privacy rights and will make the definition of personal data clearer.

The costs of non-compliance are going to be way more significant than past rules, financially (max of 4% of annual turnover or €20m) and also in terms of reputation. The deadline is approaching, 25th of May 2018.

There are 5 topics that will be very important to marketers.

1. Consent – customers will have to understand clearly how their data is being collected and used. Terms and Conditions have to be written in a clear way that everyone understands, without tricks like pre checked boxes, etc.
2. Customer Profiles – customers will know have the choice to opt out from any form of automated profiling, forcing companies to be more transparent on the way they are using and collecting customer data.
3. Marketing Opt-out – customers have the right to ask to be removed from all the marketing activities. Once requested companies can’t use the data collected and stop immediately all the direct actions over customers.
4. Be forgotten – once a customer decides to leave they will have the right to request that all their data must be deleted.
5. Data Portability – customers will have the possibility to ask for a copy of their data that will be able to be used by other companies.

All these topics will not only impact organisations by adding some new processes in place as will be a game changer on the way marketing will be done in the future.

The clock is ticking, don’t wait for the deadline!

ARTICLE AUTHOR – DIOGO REBELO

DISCLAIMER: THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN PULLED TOGETHER TO PROVIDE A GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE GDPR AND CONSIDERATIONS WITH CRM TECHNOLOGY. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO BE AN AUTHORITY AND DOES NOT REPLACE THE NEED TO READ AND UNDERSTAND THE FULL GDPR GUIDELINES. FEATURED IMAGE SOURCED FROM EUGDPR.ORG