What You Need to Know About Privacy in 2019

Happy Data Privacy Day! How are you celebrating?!?

At our last SMBME, we had Trevor Hughes from the International Association of Privacy Professionals come and talk to us about privacy and what we need to know headed into 2019.

The IAPP is the largest global information privacy community and resource and they are located right across the bridge in Portsmouth, New Hampshire!

Privacy was a huge topic in 2018 and it is only going to get bigger in 2019 and beyond. I feel like this is an opportunity and cry for the marketing department folks to step up to this challenge and figure out what their companies need to do to protect themselves and their customers.

As Trevor explained it, we all have vulnerabilities that we wish to be protected but as we use technology more and more, “our privacy is mediated by the technology we use”.

As we use social media to stay connected and to reach our customers. As we use emails to login to the cloud, our bank accounts, to shop, and to simplify all the processes in our lives… we are at the mercy of the privacy protection all of those tools use.

With every transition, their is anxiety and right now… there is a whole lot of transition in the rapidly changing data landscape that we are all trying to keep up with.

General Data Protection Regulation

In May, GDPR came out. GDPR is a regulation in the European Union to protect people’s privacy addresses exporting users email addresses outside the EU.

You may have gotten a few dozen emails from companies you subscribe to that told you they were changing their privacy policy. Other than that, unless you are doing business in the EU, you may not have been affected.

Google definitely felt the GDPR pinch with a $57 MILLION dollar fine for not complying.!

California Consumer Privacy Act

In June, the CCPA passed in California. The requirements start in January 2020.

From Wikipedia: The intention of the Act is to provide California residents with the right to:

1. Know what personal information is being collected about them.
2. Know whether their personal information is sold or disclosed and to whom.
3. Say no to the sale of personal information.
4. Access their personal information.
5. Equal service and price, even if they exercise their privacy rights.

National Regulation Coming Soon

If you think you don’t have to comply with GDPR because you don’t have customers in the EU and if you think you can avoid CCPA because you don’t have clients in California… bad news… Trevor predicts this year the CCPA will actually be made a national act this year (but with the same timeline for requirements taking effect in January of 2020).

So what is a business to do?!

That is a lot to try to understand. Here are a few suggestions to get you started on your privacy pathway!

1. Get help! Consult with your legal team or lawyers to talk about what you need to know.
2. Check with your email service provider. Each one should have easy to understand guides to help you. Mailchimp has a great PDF explaining GDPR.
3. Review Facebook’s Privacy and Data Business Hub.
4. Review what Preti Flaherty says all businesses need to know about CCPA
5. Look for a training or class from the IAPP.

Don’t be Creepy!

Trevor gave us a litmus test for our marketing. He said if there is anything we are doing that a customer would see and would make them say ‘whoa! that is creepy!’ (*cough cough* retargeting), that is a good indicator that it isn’t a good campaign. Why would you want to make a customer uncomfortable in the name of marketing?

Being a Steward For Your Customers

I think the thing that stuck with me the most from Trevor’s talk was the concept of being a steward of your customer’s email address and privacy.

When someone gives you their email address or information, are you treating that with the respect it deserves?

What are you doing to safeguard your customers’ data?

Are you putting your customer first?

I know it is a lot but hey, we have each other to help. Let’s figure it out together!