In the absence of a global data privacy agreement, marketers and publishers have been forced to navigate an alphabet soup of disparate national and local regulations.
For instance, most global brands would have to comply with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Privacy Protection Act (CCPA) and the United States’ Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
As regulatory bodies try to keep up with the fast pace of technology innovation, it’s certain that these regulations won’t be the last. As new laws come down the pike, companies that handle consumer data can’t afford to re-engineer their entire privacy policies every time an additional regulation emerges.
In order to succeed, it’s incumbent on businesses to develop forward-thinking, holistic privacy and data security standards that strive for airtight consumer protection at all times. In addition to helping them remain flexible as new laws are passed, this strategy allows data handlers to avoid the damaging data privacy scandals that have plagued brands and publishers in recent years.
A bad privacy framework is a risk you can’t afford.
CCPA just went into effect at the beginning of this year, and there are additional privacy laws being considered and enacted around the world, including the Washington Privacy Act, the India Personal Data Protection Bill and the Brazil General Data Protection Law.
Beyond the mere cost of complying with rules that are not consistent from region to region, companies that do not have a comprehensive privacy framework are subject to real risks if they fail to comply or betray the public’s trust.
For instance, when GDPR first became law, the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune had to block access to their sites from European users because they were not compliant with the law. Still more costly was the $5 billion fine that Facebook received from the Federal Trade Commission for mishandling user data in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
As more traditional retail brands expand into direct-to-consumer marketing in the hopes of collecting first-party data, these risks will only become more dangerous. After all, a GDPR fine levied across a massive CPG firm could be absolutely devastating.
In order to avoid the consequences of a lax data privacy strategy, businesses must not only be cognizant about how they collect and share data themselves, but also careful about the data partners they work with. The last thing any company needs is its brand logo splashed across a major news story about a data provider that acted inappropriately.
TVision’s privacy framework is built for long-term compliance and security.
At TVision we are focused on forward-looking privacy strategy, with strict internal controls and continuous re-evaluation of our practices.
Because we’re always working to keep our opt-in panelists’ data as secure as possible, it’s relatively easy for us to comply with new regulations—with limited impact on our business or our customers’ operations. Today, we align with GDPR, CCPA, COPPA and the Advertising Research Foundation’s Code of Conduct.
Over time, there will be new regulations, and they’re likely to be more strict than the ones we have now. But due to our flexible, comprehensive privacy protection process, we’re well-positioned to adapt to the challenges and regulations we’ll face in the future.