How GDPR Will Change Digital Marketing Forever

Digital Marketers are on the course to witness a new reality. The new rule set by the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which has been effective from May 25, 2018, is bringing strict laws for organizations that might fail to comply with its rules and regulations. And it’s definitely going to change the way organizations access and handle the issues of data security and privacy from now on. GDPR is the first of its kind to bring in such consumer protection and enact worldwide as governments across the globe are crippling to solve a clump of growing issues in the market.

During the previous years, “Self-Regulation” has gained massive growth and the revelation of personal data has embarrassed users to such an extent that respective governments have been buried under severe criticism, ultimately forcing governments to bring in and enact such strict regulation for the violators.

In this article, we will analyze each and everything on GDPR, especially its implications on various organizations’’ digital presence. As you will notice that even the organizations based in the US have to obligatorily comply with the new GDPR rule of the EU.

What is GDPR all about?

At its core, the GDPR is a host of extensive guidelines that intend to greatly improve the privacy, collection, and handling of personal data of European Union (EU) citizens.

The highest penalties of noncompliance are pretty eye-catching: it could be to the tune of 20,000,000 Euros— that calculates roughly as high as $21 million—or up to 4 percent of yearly worldwide revenue, whichever is higher.

Some of the major rules of the regulation contain:

• Data protection by blueprint and by default.
• Seeking precise user approval for tracking and data collection.
• Tracking of all data collection, processing, and transmission activities for audit purposes.
• Users’ right to request, access, and update the personal data you have collected.
• Users’ right to change their data preferences.
• Right to be forgotten, i.e., the user’s right for the removal of their personal data.
• Instant reporting of breaches to the EU.
• Organizational necessities comprising accountability, contracts, processes, and documentation of data management and processing activities.

But Wait, Will GDPR Really Be Effective for Me?

That’s a difficult one to guess as the GDPR compliance matters to all the organizations that are present online or run online campaigns to target, engage or collect information from EU citizens may potentially be the subject falls under it.

It is a prerequisite to know that GDPR must be analyzed in the context of each organization and situation. A legal counsel would be the perfect guide on how and to what extent GDPR might affect you. To help you begin this analysis, we have remarked crucial points with the different applicability of GDPR:

Keeping the ongoing speculation apart, GDPR has not come bundled with any specific rules or with some informative guidelines to solve any related issues. The initial step for a company would be to analyze, discuss, and build awareness within its premises and seek expert legal advice. This entire processing will assist you in getting accustomed to this new regulatory environment.

What change does my website need to undergo to comply with GDPR?

You may have to loosen your strings in order to get your website complied with GDPR. In a strict case of the regulation, compliance may need some or most of the following:

1. Seek precise consent via soft opt-in for:

• Tracking of your visitors through cookies
• Submit forms comprising personally recognizable details, including information like email addresses.

2. Be succinct towards your objective

• For tracking, collecting, storing, and sharing the data of your users. Formation of the long, critical, and technical privacy policy will not be enough.

3. Give users a freehold of their data.

• Don’t stick to a single privacy setting for long, always be open to upgrading or downgrading the privacy setting.
• Upload the user data you have collected.
• Provide an option for downloading their personal data from your website.
• An option for deleting the user data.

4. Collect only the least amount of data you need for your business.

• Stick to a policy of deleting the same when you no longer in need of those data.

What About the Backup Technology (like our CMS or E-commerce Platform)?

GDPR also consists of some crucial compliance requirements regarding your web platforms and they actually secure, process, and communicate personal data.

Personal data should always be encrypted. Every time they are stored or transmitted. Apart from that, personal data must be stored in a “nom de guerre” manner. In simple words, that translates the pieces of data are tokenized and segregated in a way that, even unencrypted, they are made reasonably difficult to set up and allot to a specific individual.

Widely used popular CMS platforms like Episerver, Sitecore, and Kentico now take pride in their GDPR compliance. The caution here is that this crucial compliance has been achieved in their most recent versions. Businesses, therefore, should be careful with the GDPR versions they are complied with. In most cases upgrades and updates, including proper development testing, will be in order.