by Tim Hughes | @Timothy_Hughes | LinkedIn
Here at Digital Leadership Associates (DLA) we are counting the days now until the European GDPR regulations are place. So we undertook this twitter poll.
Now we understand that 23 votes isn’t a massive sample, but a sample nevertheless.
What scared us is that only 22% of Marketers said they understood GDPR.
OK 44% said they understood GDPR but that is still in the minority.
So what is GDPR? And will it Impact you?
If you as a company sell into Europe, regardless of if you are in Europe or outside of Europe, you have to comply.
The best way of describing GDPR it is “grown up” data management.
Gone are the days where your sales reps or marketing can “home grow” a database of emails and just fire them out. You now must be able to show documented evidence that a person has opted in.
This isn’t just that they have ticked a box, but the actual evidence.
In addition, you need to be able to prove you have the appropriate processes, which includes an officer that can be escalated to.
Most people I talk to say it’s not a problem and they will be able to bluff their way out ….. the fines are 4% of turnover.
It becomes enforceable from 25 May 2018 after a two-year transition period and, unlike a directive, it does not require national governments to pass any enabling legislation, and is thus directly binding and applicable.
The only way that we can see organisations getting to grips with GDPR is two fold, either rolling out a rigorous training program similar to that you might do for health and safety, discrimination etc. A program that requires people to be certified, so companies have evidence of compliance or to do what Weatherspoon’s pub did and pull out of holding any customer data.
Wetherspoons just deleted its entire customer email database – on purpose http://www.wired.co.uk/article/wetherspoons-email-database-gdpr
What are they going to do?
Simple, go where their customers are, social media. So rather than pushing content via email, they will move to pull conversations on social media.
People who read this also read these:
http://www.social-experts.net/small-business-became-gdpr-compliant/
http://www.social-experts.net/gdpr-transforms-sell/
http://www.social-experts.net/gdpr-immenent-33-consumers-say-will-erase-personal-data/
