The EU’s new GDPR legislation takes effect in just a couple of months, and yet despite that, many marketers are still not sure what the legislation means and the implications that it has. Many B2B marketers are under the false assumption that it’s primarily a concern for B2Cs, not realising that the leads they collect will also be covered by the legislation. Perhaps it’s no surprise that not everyone is ready.
In fact, a recent report from Forrester found that only 15% of marketers think that they’re currently compliant. What’s interesting here is that many marketers don’t actually know whether they’re compliant or not. 18% of them admitted that they haven’t settled on a strategy, while most believed that they’re partially compliant.
The new legislation is set to take effect on May 25th and failure to comply with it can lead to fines of up to €20 million or 4% of the company’s overall turnover. The legislation applies to any company that sells products or services or gathers data on citizens within the European Union, so it’s important to remember that it still applies to you even if you’re headquartered outside of Europe.
What is GDPR?
GDPR stands for “General Data Protection Regulation” and it’s essentially a suite of regulations which specify what companies can do with the data that they gather. It’s so large in scope that we can’t cover it all here, but the idea is to give consumers more control over what data companies can gather and what they’re subsequently allowed to do with that data.
The legislation also gives a broader outline of what counts as personal data, including “any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person”. That includes everything from mobile device IDs and IP addresses to email addresses, phone numbers, usernames and even birth dates.
The good news is that the new legislation isn’t exactly bad for business, and as long as you make sure that you’re fully compliant, you’re likely to find that it has little impact on your actual operations. The legislators aren’t trying to make your life more difficult. They’re trying to increase the ability we all have over the data that we create and share with third parties. Bringing your business in line with the legislation is really all about making sure that you’re following industry best practices.
Conclusion
GDPR is an important topic on the lips of many marketers at the moment, and there’s good reason for that. Right now, it’s not too late to make sure that your company is in full compliance, but that won’t always be the case. You need to act now before it’s too late. Don’t leave your business vulnerable and liable for a fine.
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Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.