GDPR, the new regulations designed to protect the data privacy of EU citizens, was approved by the EU Parliament in 2016 and its official enforcement date will become law on May 25th 2018. However, the regulations will have a dramatic impact on how organizations operating in the EU approach data privacy.

The EU General Data Protection Regulation’s (GDPR) official website says that the articles are the most important changes in data privacy regulation in 20 years. That makes sense because they will directly impact anyone doing business with and/or holds data on EU citizens for sales and marketing efforts.
In simple terms, you’re going to have to prove that anyone you send marketing to – or even have data on – have explicitly expressed their permission for you to do this on a regular basis. You’ll also need to provide clear parameters on whether an individual has opted-in – as well as precisely what they’ve opted in to.
That’s already a lot, but it gets better. Any organizations not in compliance by 2nd May 2018 will face legal penalties for some data breaches, including fines totaling up to four percent of its global revenue. To put that in perspective, failure to comply could, hypothetically, cost individual companies billions or even put smaller companies out of business.
With all that at stake, why are so few people doing anything to prepare for GDPR – or at the very least starting to at least talk about it?
A recent survey at last year’s RSA conference found that not only have over half of respondents had never heard of GDPR, but a whopping 75% stated that their employer has never even mentioned it. Many organizations still aren’t even sure if they needed to comply.
There’s also some concern emanating from SAP itself. Bernd Leukert, Head of Innovation, SAP, told the Financial Times earlier in 2017 that he felt the financial penalties were way too high, particularly for a first offense. Leukert added that repeat offenses could “wipe out certain firm’s revenues completely”.
At Nytro Marketing, we understand that it can be a little confusing out there and we share your concerns about compliance. Keep an eye on this blog, as we will continue to do our best to provide you with important developments and resources about GDPR’s legal requirements and their impact on doing (digital) marketing in the right way.

In the meantime, if you need more information about GDPR and how it can affect your marketing activities, please send an email to our digital marketing data privacy expert ofalkenstein@nytromarketing.com