Hi all,
In case you weren’t aware there is a new EU General Data Protection Regulation (the GDPR) coming into force on May 25th 2018.
https://www.eugdpr.org/key-changes.html
From what I understand if you hold any data on individuals living in the EU (including UK) like email addresses, then you need to be more explicit about their data rights and have clearer proof about their consent to giving you access to their data and subscribing to your list.
Basically all the stuff that everyone should already know needs to be made more explicit.
It seems like more barriers to entry with additional material for potential fans to have to read through, possibly scaring them away with a subject that most internet savvy users are already aware of anyway.
There seem to be some hefty fines for non-compliance but I’m not sure if small businesses and independent musicians will fall through the net / be more overlooked.
Is anyone changing up any of their strategies as a result?
i.e. double opt in, restating subscribers rights
Thanks
Antoine
Hi Antoine,
I'll definitely keep an eye on it, but at least for now, this doesn't concern me. I have been doing this for a long time and I have seen many similar scares come along in the marketing world, in which some government agency passes some new regulation that makes a lot of headlines but changes absolutely nothing. I suspect that this is a tool for regulatory agencies to target large companies and major privacy abusers. I don't think individuals running small mailing lists will be effected. At the very worst, companies like Aweber may require double opt ins again (no big deal at all) and companies like FB may require some kind of a statement in one's privacy policy (also no big deal). But these are just my assumptions based on what I've seen in the past. We'll soon see an impact on our mailing lists and ad campaigns if it becomes an issue.
That said, because of the privacy abuses that Facebook is currently being accused of, I do expect that they will be upping their enforcement of advertiser abuse. So it's very important right now that everyone avoid pushing the boundaries of FB's policies.
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