Customer’s rights changes with GDPR?
Have you ever received a newsletter from the unknown sender who is promoting a product or/and service, or giving you some educational information about a certain subject? Never? Ever?
Well, I have. Dozens of times. And in the last couple of decades since the beginning of email marketing, there are many customers all around the globe who have received the newsletter they never agreed on or, they agreed to get that one content in particular, and never wanted to receive the newsletter from the same company ever again if they don’t want to. We’ve got to admit, that’s not fair and it’s fairly annoying! Don’t you think?
So, first of all, what we want to discuss here, how is that possible? Where did they even get our e-mail addresses and other data?
Second of all, is that EVER going to change? In the light of the regulatory jurisdictions that provide for consumers rights, which is our mission from the whole beginning, everything is going to change. So, the answer to the ever asking question: “Is that ever going to change?”, YES! A couple of times, YES!
Therefore, what we would like to discuss further in this article is phenomenon and buzzword that has been mentioning in digital marketing world for the last couple of months. It’s called GDPR.
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It sounds complicated (like any other law for that matter), and as it is the same with all laws, it will take a couple of years for everything to be clarified and used properly. But, it will be used for our sake as customers, and our sake as the providers of products that help customers with their needs.
We should know that up until now, there are many laws that protect customers’ data protection rights. All those laws have the same mission, which is trying to restrict the use of customers data in the companies. However, somehow these same companies still get our personal databases from unknown sources, or they use the same database for years for multiple uses, and they are still sending us the newsletters we never agreed on. They just go with that, like nothing ever happened and we have to accept that our data is used for promotional use that we don’t even know how.
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To sum up this intro, if you are reading this article from the company’s perspective or customer’s perspective, be sure that you will find out more about the new law that is coming to a couple of months from now: GDPR, which becomes enforceable from 25 May 2018. You will find out what is GDPR in general; what can you as a company do to prepare for the new regulation that is coming, and what can you do as a customer expect when it comes to your data protection rights.
- What is GDPR anyway?
The buzzword that has been mentioning for a while now stands for the General Data Protection Regulation. As the words themselves describe, GDPR is a regulation by which European Parliament, and the European Commission intent to unify and strengthen data protection for all individuals (us as customers) within the European Union.
Basically, that sums up to protecting exporting of our own personal data within the companies without strictly asking for our own permission. It will protect our fundamental rights of using our data in any particular way.
2. Why is the new law coming?
We are not even aware how much of our personal data is online today. That’s the reason why we sometimes receive an email from the company whose website we once had visited. Here is a scenario that will clear the picture for you.
Last year, I was visiting a certain webpage looking for healthy products for my “healthy muffins”. I came on one website which created a perfect content about healthy recipes and those recipes kind of attracted my attention. At that time, I sign up for a newsletter to receive only that particular content they were promoting at that moment. That was a year ago. Obviously, with so much content online, I forgot about a company and the content. Last month, I received an email from them again, and I was wondering how did they even get my email address (forgot I left it). It’s nothing serious though, but the GDPR will change exactly that. This month I haven’t agreed to get the new content and GDPR will change the way companies use our once left email address and other personal data. By the new law, that company will have to ask my permission to send me any other content in the future and they will not be able to share my email with anyone.
3. What will GDPR change? Consent? Is it simple?
According to the UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in public interest, the Information Commissioner’s Office, GDPR will change the way how we as the companies use customer’s data (email addresses in particular).
If you are a customer, however and have never given your consent to the company you got an email from, you should know that for the sake of this regulation, the company broke the law. And, if you are a company you should always ask your customer for CONSENT FOR USING THEIR DATA so you don’t have to worry about this regulation ever again.
NOTE: Companies should have asked for our consent according to other existing laws too, but the penalties weren’t so drastic. Now, however, if the company didn’t ask for our consent on using our data, they broke the law which brings them more drastic penalties than ever.
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So, dear companies, review how you seek and manage consent now. According to GDPR standard, your way of asking for consent must be specific, informed, given freely, with a positive opt-in (consent cannot be inferred from silence), it should be separated from other terms and conditions, and most importantly people should have a simple way to withdraw their consent. (Read the detailed guidance the ICO has published if you are interested more in this particular subject.)
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To wrap up the headline of the article; yes, the GDPR will change the customer’s rights.
It sounds so simple. Just ask for a consent. And it almost sums up to frequently asking the customer for a consent. But, will it be that simple though? We just don’t and cannot know yet, but what we do know, it is not going to be that simple for the companies to refresh their data so often. There is so much work underneath the surface. However, we now know we will receive emails only from the sources we chose, but what will happen next, we should only let time to show..
Up until next time my dear readers, have a wonderful Christmas and happy New Year!
