Digital Marketing & Privacy Concerns

Impact of Privacy on Digital Marketing

We can all agree that the rise of the internet has made it easier for brands and consumers to interact.

What used to take tons of effort to reach your target market can now be done in minutes or even seconds. In turn, this allows companies to grow more quickly. As well as reach new heights faster than ever before.

However, along with immediate access to information day or night comes an increasing reliance on tech.

This is why so many people are concerned about personal privacy. In addition to overall access companies have to this information.

What Is Privacy In The Digital World?

Privacy is the right of consumers to determine how their personal information is used by third-party organizations.

Personal information includes, but is not limited to:

• Personal Contact Information
  Name. Address .Phone Number. Email Address.
• Identifiable Details
  Social Security Number. Date of Birth. Driver’s License Number. IP Address.
• Financial Information
  Credit Card Numbers. Bank  Account Numbers.
• Usage Details
  Tracking on Websites. Cookies. Prior Visits.

People become concerned that digital marketers are using personal information in an improper way. Laws and regulations concerning the use of this type of consumer data. They are becoming more commonplace.

This means that more online advertisers need to be aware of what they can and cannot do in terms of personal privacy.

More specifically, there are two major pieces of legislation that you need to consider:

1.  The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
2.  California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Both of these guidelines regulate how entities collect information. Also give individuals the right to opt out at any time.

What Can You Do to Make Your Website Privacy-Friendly?

It’s essential to understand policies, obtain consent when collecting data, maintain transparency and be responsible with user data. You can do this in-house, or there are now third-party companies who can help your website stay up to date on compliance.

Action to take: Ask for consent with an opt-in banner and create clear-cut data privacy and cookie policy pages that are easy for users to locate.

Looking into the future, we’ll all need to use some creativity. You can be creative with how you find data insights without relying on third-party cookies. Also, consider finding a new way to build your first-party data collection, which will be crucial when third-party data disappears.

Action to take: Build a robust, incentivized first-party data collection strategy. This strategy includes steps you can take to drive customer loyalty.

Perhaps most importantly, remain flexible and continue adapting to change as marketers have done many times before. We’re used to adjusting to changes in the visibility of data. Who remembers when we were able to see search query data at the order level? That ability is long gone! We learned how to shift our way of looking at the data to fill in the gaps. This change will be as prominent as other shifts we’ve experienced in the digital marketing world, but remember, we are all ushering in the necessary change to a privacy-first world together.

What Can We Do Now To Prepare For A Future Without Third-Party Cookies?

Marketers should understand what’s going on even if they don’t know the ins and outs of every law and policy.