It’s coming… It’s coming! Well, actually it’s already upon us…
As if it’s just a dark cloud in the distant sky, we tend to not care and carry on with our businesses. Until judgement day is finally upon us. We’ve all read about it. Heard about it. Complained about it and probably pushed it so far down our to do lists, it’s embarrassing. Yes… we’re talking about the dreaded GDPR, short for General Data Protection Regulation.
When collecting data, be sure to keep these requirements in mind:
- You need explicit consent from each person, whose data you wish to store and use.
- Store the timestamp, source and context of your subscribers’ consent. You need to be able to justify this at any given time.
- You can only collect data that you will actually use and nothing more.
- You are only allowed to store data for as long you need it. In all other cases, you should delete or anonymise it.
- Always be transparent. A potential subscriber must know what he/she is subscribing for. And for what purpose their data is being used.
- Consumers should at all times be able to alter both their personal information as well as their consent.
This is not merely a new set of regulations. It’s a totally new approach to segmenting your database and handling the content of your campaigns. You need to be very clear on what it is you wish to collect data for. If you don’t need it, simply don’t ask for it.
- Ability to prove consent
For everybody in your current database. You have to be able to prove when, where and for what particular reason people gave you their consent. - Ability to prove recent consent
Consent needs to be recent. - Ability to access your proof
You should be able to prove recent consent of your subscribers at all time. It is part of a new, more transparent approach.
One of your biggest challenges will be to sort out if all recipients have recently given their consent. And you need to be able to prove that. It’s time to check if recipients actually know what they’ve given their consent for. Be sure to check if your privacy policy is crystal clear and not full of legal jargon that’s hard to understand.
Conclusion
Now that we’ve set the tone, we encourage you to take measures and start preparing for what’s to come. Preparing for the future is one thing, but you will need to focus on what you already have and how you can still legally use it. It just might be a chance to clean up your database, rethink your strategy or even see it as a chance to grow your own databases.