GDPR and Social Media- Things you need to know
After two years of the transition period and seven years of making, finally, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) will be enforced all around the European Union on May 25th, 2018.
Who does it apply?
GDPR applies to the organizations located within the EU and those who offer their products or services to the EU citizen, or monitor them regardless where they are based. So in short, if you’re a business and has customers in EU it applies to you. And if you’re a customer(especially for EU citizen), it is for you.
On breaching this regulation, organizations will be fined up to 4% of their global turn over or €20 million(whichever is higher).
What is GDPR?
This is a new data protection law in the European Union which updates existing laws and strengthen the protection of personal data. GDPR aims to protect all EU citizens from privacy and data breaches. It gives individuals the complete right to control the collection, usage and storage of their personal data.
GDPR affects every company, especially the ones which collect a lot of customer information to process their business or, to personalize the user experience. Individuals must be informed about each purpose you use their personal information for. And they should be informed if the usage of their data changes.
What are the personal data comes under GDPR?
Personal data means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person; an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.
- Basic user information such as name, Email address, contact numbers, address, and ID number.
- Gender, racial, health, or genetic data.
- IP address, location, cookies, and RFID tags.
- Any direct or indirect means by which a person could be identified.
- Analyzing a person’s preferences, opinions, behaviours, and attitude.
Benefits
Companies must get the user consent for each purpose data is used. Users must also be able to decline the consent any time. And for children below 16, consent from a parent or guardian is necessary to collect their data. In case of any data breach, the data processing authority and the customer should be informed without any delay. All companies should update their privacy policy in compliance with GDPR.
- The main purpose of this regulation is to ensure the protection of the privacy of EU customers.
- Allows the collection of only the necessary personal information that too with the proper consent in a clear language.
- Reduces the risk of data breach.
- The organizations compliant with the regulation will be more trustworthy.
- Enhance the customer relationship.
With this regulation, users also can
- Easily opt-out of receiving marketing emails.
- Clearly understand what personal data is used, where and the purpose of using it.
- Choose to opt-out of getting targeted for ads by analyzing the behavior online.
- Decide if they want to receive the analytics got by tracking down their website performance.
- Withhold the use of certain data.
- Delete personal information from sites.
- Request to get access to the personal data companies has stored.
Social Media
Each social media sites have made a few changes to their platform and advertising features which uses personal data, in compliance with GDPR. With this regulation,
- If you want to target audience or track their performance on the site you need to acquire explicit consent from the individuals.
- Consent request must be clear to understand, freely given, specific and unambiguous.
- Users must be able to withdraw their consent.
- Must be able to know what personal information is used, why and how.
- Allow users to erase their personal data and stop its further usage.
They’ve launched a set of new tools to put individuals in the control of their own privacy. The advertising features like Facebook pixel, custom audience and lead ads which use customer data will be updated as per the regulations.
Facebook stated that they comply with the GDPR and the preparation are underway, lead by their data protection team. Businesses that advertise with Facebook could continue it complying with GDPR. It includes Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, Whatsapp, and Oculus.
Twitter is working to ensure that their service complies with GDPR. Twitter asks advertisers to review their updated Privacy Policy and Master Services Agreement before continuing the use of their advertising products and services.
The Twitter Ad features pixels and tailored audiences which use personal data will be updated to comply with the regulation.
LinkedIn too is working to bring their products and services in compliance with GDPR and update the customer agreements to reflect GDPR requirements.
What has changed:
- LinkedIn members have more control over the data used for targeting purposes like demographics.
- Personal data stored in LinkedIn Campaign Manager will be automatically deleted in 90 days
The LinkedIn ad features like Insight Tag, Sponsored InMail, and Lead Gen Forms will have changes as it collects personal information of the customer.
Are you ready?
Companies all over the world are working to make it GDPR compliant before the enforcement date. Know your rights and protect the personal data from any use that you don’t want to or that you are unaware of. Your privacy is the priority of this regulation. Or if you’re a business act fast as you should be compliant to GDPR before 25th May.
