U.S. businesses scramble to address GDPR

The internet doesn’t adhere to national borders. That means Europe’s new data-collection law affects many foreign organizations.

The law, colloquially known as the GDPR, is the EU’s bold new plan for protecting consumer data. While many privacy advocates are rejoicing, some marketers and data collectors are holding their breath.

In a survey from HubSpot, 33 percent of marketers believe the law will cause their conversion rates to go down and 37 percent say their marketing routine will be affected.

The upshot for marketers? More social media and content marketing. Forty-four percent say they will invest more heavily in social media efforts and 41 percent are planning to add to their content marketing strategy.

Many organizations are just recognizing the full implications of Europe’s law.

CNBC reported:

But more recently, [Robert Bond], a partner at London law firm Bristows, has been waking up to enquiries from the other side of the Atlantic. "Already this morning, there's been three overnight from the U.S., saying we don't have anything in place but we've realized this applies to us, do you have a quick fix solution? I think there's an awful lot of businesses out there, particularly outside the EU, that have suddenly realized the extra territorial nature (of the regulations) and that's come as quite a shock. They are assuming it's a tick the box exercise, which of course it isn't."

Even if a company has no direct EU operations, it may still need to comply, said Bond, who was speaking at an event organized by U.K. body the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) in London on Tuesday. A Bristows client in Reno, Nevada that managed aftercare for people who had bought laptops thought it would be exempt from the rules, until one of its European customers mandated that it put a GDPR program in place because it was acting on its behalf and processing information on people in Europe.

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While only a month remains before the law goes into effect, 93 percent of respondents to a new survey from SAS say they are not fully compliant.

This infographic shares findings from the SAS survey:

Some also believe the law will be a roadblock to artificial intelligence and other high-tech marketing tools.

Yet, not everyone is upset by the changes.

HubSpot wrote:

On a more upbeat note, we think the legislation is a positive step. It’s an opportunity for good marketers to continue doing positive work in a way that puts people and their concerns at the forefront. It also means marketers will have to work harder to earn attention and gain the right to communicate with people on an ongoing basis.

But hard work won’t be enough: marketers will be forced to up their game and become more creative if they want to succeed. Again, we don’t see that as a bad outcome at all. Anything that gives more power to consumers and makes marketers get better is to be welcomed.

On Twitter, many note that the world of marketing is changing:

“Dear subscriber. We know you appreciate endless emails to your personal Gmail from us, a company who sold you a fridge magnet in 2009. We’d like to ensure you continue to receive our “Magnet of the day” email after GDPR. Please click here to let us continue to spam you. PLEASE.”

— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) April 25, 2018

Others are sharing statements about how they intend to comply with the new regulations:

Twitter just updated its privacy policy for EU's GDPR on May 25th. This certainly reads like they won't be tracking users across the web and apps when you're not on Twitter's owned products. If so that's way better leadership than the Duopoly - Facebook and Google. pic.twitter.com/WIyFb9ljP3

— Jason Kint (@jason_kint) April 24, 2018

The good news is that most organizations have a plan for dealing with GDPR regulations—93 percent, according to the SAS survey. To ensure you have all your boxes ticked, consult HubSpot’s checklist.

For anyone just getting started on GDPR compliance, experts have some advice:

CNBC wrote:

If GDPR seems like a mountain to climb, break it down, advised Richard Merrygold, director of group data protection at U.K. domestic repairs business HomeServe. "If you haven't started, then you need to find out what's the most important thing, is it having a good basic consent (to use data), is it having someone in place who can advise you, is it going out and re-consenting, is it going out and doing your data mapping and understanding where all your information is?" he said, speaking at the DMA's event.

In the U.K., it will be the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) that fines companies breaking the rules, with penalties of up to 4 percent of global turnover, or 20 million euros ($24.4 million), whichever is greater. Richard Sisson, a senior ICO policy officer, has a pragmatic approach. "If you are doing work that you can to comply, if you are working towards the accountability principle, if you have plans in place to show you are working towards compliance, we do take those things into consideration. We are not suddenly going to issue huge fines immediately," he said at the event.

How are you preparing for the GDPR law to take effect, PR Daily readers?

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