In this data-driven world, numerous technologies capture data from people’s digital footprints. When woven together, these interactions form unique digital identities offering insights into interests, behaviors and preferences. This is crucial because most consumers now expect personalization and are frustrated when companies fall short highlighting the importance of effective personalization strategies for businesses.
However, personalization is a delicate balancing act, and it’s all too easy to transition from a cool personalized campaign to one perceived as creepy. Layer on frequent data breaches and privacy-related enforcement actions in the news, and marketers are witnessing a paradigm shift in privacy perception. Consumers are becoming more conscious of their digital footprints and the repercussions of lax data hygiene. Even more noteworthy is their awareness of the rising tide of consumer privacy laws that impose compliance obligations on businesses and certain rights extended to them as consumers.
As brands assess their personalization strategies, effectively navigating the privacy landscape becomes more critical. Let’s explore some practical tips on how privacy counsel can support your compliance posture and, along the way, pave the way to market success.
Dynamic privacy landscape creates a moving target
The privacy landscape is dynamic, creating a moving target for compliance and making it crucial to understand the foundational privacy principles underpinning these laws. Three of these principles—transparency, purpose limitation and data minimization—directly address the pressing concerns raised by consumers.
When applied in practice, these principles promote being open about how you process your data, using the data only for the purposes you communicate and not collecting more data than you need to accomplish that purpose. This is simple in concept, but it can be difficult to implement.
Start by opening a communication channel with your privacy counsel. Their role is vital in gaining an in-depth understanding of your operations to identify the legal obligations that apply. This includes the jurisdictions in scope, the types of personal data processed, the proposed data flow, and the vendors and tech stack used. Their expertise and guidance are critical in creating transparency with consumers, assessing the data collected and fulfilling rights requests. Capturing a snapshot in time is not sufficient to carry compliance forward. Regular evaluation of operational changes and personalization campaigns is important to imbue flexibility to pivot to the changing privacy landscape.
Embrace a team mentality
Privacy is a journey, not a destination. In this context, fostering a symbiotic relationship between the business team and privacy counsel is crucial. This shared responsibility paves the way for effective compliance management. More than compliance, a privacy-forward mindset focused on the key privacy principles addresses consumers’ wariness about the scope of data collected and how that data is used.
Proactively assess product and service offerings with privacy counsel to determine whether they align with privacy requirements. Privacy counsel can become a strategic partner with an in-depth knowledge of the business, its purposes and applicable laws. They can stress-test personalization campaigns to identify potential issues before they become roadblocks, providing reassurance and confidence to the business team during compliance efforts.
But as with everything, timing matters. Bringing privacy counsel to the table late in the process promotes a reactive mindset, potentially exacerbating frustrations if the team must go back to the drawing table and adjust. Instead, stay ahead of the curve and place an emphasis on collaboration and early check-ins.
Prioritize people over data
The story of privacy is fundamentally about people. When marketers reduce individuals to their data, it’s all too easy to treat them as commodities. Every digital identity represents a real person. While it’s tempting to focus solely on reach and personalization, a delicate balance must be struck between the personal data marketers process and the purpose of their interactions.
Prioritizing people over data creates an opportunity to build trust equity with consumers. Failure to do so may result in alienating the audience you are trying to reach. Flip the script, and privacy compliance can go from a risk exercise to a market differentiator.
Consumers are savvier about privacy and their privacy rights than ever before. Proper personalization will reinforce trust and loyalty to the brand, but cracks in operationalizing privacy may alienate your audience. To avoid this, bring privacy to the forefront with intention by cultivating a positive and strategic relationship with your privacy counsel. Embracing a privacy-by-design mindset will pave the path to compliance and position your business as a market differentiator.
