Using GDPR to Enhance Marketing through Personalization.

An article in ClickZ today details the missed opportunity for marketing to enhance personalization as a result of GDPR. The article discusses how the privacy regulation’s obligation to ask about and honor customer data collection preferences gives marketing the opportunity to provide a better customer experience through personalization. However, the survey results asking about how marketers intended to comply and this wasn’t among their top responses.

Instead, the data revealed that the big changes marketers intended to make involved the tools to collect data, how consent was obtained, and data utilization plans. This fails to take advantage of the opportunity to use GDPR to build trust among customers and potential customers.

Yesterday, we mentioned the European Commission’s comment to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) that giving individuals more control over their data will increase trust and result in more willingness to share information. However, if businesses do not take the next step and give customers greater personalization, this can create challenges.

This was demonstrated by a recent controversy happening at the Nevada Department of Wildlife involving the release of personal information about hunters. In the past, the hunters addresses have been released by the state and used by guides and other services to provide targeted advertising to them. However, the state recently adopted a new system and offered the ability to opt out of the list. The majority did so and the service providers in the state are upset.

The question that was asked of the applicants for a big game tag was whether they would like their information to be on sellable distribution lists. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the current climate of opinion about data brokers, more than 75 percent decided to opt out of the list. They also may have opted out because of the decision by some to harass hunters.

It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if the state had done A/B testing with the question asked.
Enhanced transparency also might have yielded a very different result. If hunters would have been asked if they were interested in receiving marketing materials about hunting opportunities in the state, more may have decided to opt-in. Furthermore, hunters confident in their ability to change their mind later (rather than a single all or nothing question), may have been more willing to provide their information.

We have talked alot here at Clarip about the need to increase transparency and control as part of improving data privacy practices. But we have so far mentioned less the ability to use those practices to improve personalization and provide a better customer experience to users from the marketing department. Organizations that want to build their privacy program into a competitive advantage over other businesses would be wise to do so.

Contact Clarip for Help with Your Privacy Program

The Clarip privacy software and team are available to help improve privacy practices at your organization. Click here to contact us (return messages within 24 hours) or call 1-888-252-5653 to schedule a demo or speak to a member of the Clarip team.

If you are working towards GDPR compliance, we can help through our modular GDPR software. Whether you are starting the process with GDPR data mapping automation, need privacy impact assessment software, or looking to meet ePrivacy requirements with cookie management software, Clarip can help strengthen your privacy program.

If CCPA compliance in 2020 is on your radar, ask us about our California Consumer Privacy Act software. Improve efficiency of responses to data subject access requests with our DSAR software, or provide the right to opt out of the sale of personal information with our consent management platform.

Click here to contact us (return messages within 24 hours) or call 1-888-252-5653 to schedule a demo and speak to a member of the Clarip team.