Welcoming in the GDPR

The end of the world as we know it...or not

So, I woke up this morning and still had two arms and legs, and a desperate need for a coffee. The world didn’t end (or if it did, you wouldn’t be reading this anyway so a small factual inaccuracy won’t matter). Things have changed – but I think it’s been a gradual shift of mindset and prioritisation of data privacy and all that surrounds it. With any gradual change, you have to take a step back to actually see how much things have changed.

In my last blog, I commented on how what was being asked of organisations to comply with GDPR seemed quite unbelievable at first, but now it seems perfectly acceptable and necessary – especially given some of the headlines of the last two years.

Everybody’s talking about it

One of my colleagues commented that even in social circles people with no interest in IT or marketing technology are now talking about GDPR. We have all seen opt-in requests flooding our inbox, and I even saw one major football club advertising the need to opt-in to keep in touch with them on their advertising hoardings around the pitch. That’s a pretty demonstrable commitment they’ve shown there, given what could have been charged to advertisers for that airtime.

What will come next? No one knows

There will of course be some high-profile transgressors, and many people are waiting to see how severe the regulator in their region will be given their new-found power to give eye-watering fines. At some point over the next 12-18 months, the level will be found and generally understood, and everyone’s new normal will begin... but with an ongoing commitment to data privacy and protection by default and by design.

For anyone reading this who is part of a GDPR compliance project, best wishes for the rest of the project, and thanks for reading. For everyone else, enjoy the new world of owning your own data, wherever it may be.