By this point, you’re probably aware that new data protection rules, known as the GDPR, are coming into force from the 25th May 2018.
What you might be less sure of, however, is how exactly these new rules will affect you and your work moving forward.
Luckily, the team over at coworking space provider Accelerate Places have put together a handy cheat sheet for marketers, so you can better understand how the GDPR affects you.
What else do you need to be aware of?
Now you know the basics of how the GDPR will affect marketers, it’s time to look a little further in depth into some situations that you should be aware of, and how the GDPR will impact these.
Freelancing work
If you take on freelancing projects, you need to be aware of your client’s own data protection policies, and you’ll need to follow these guidelines and policies in your work. Although the GDPR has been widely publicised, many companies still aren’t sure about the real-world impact, so you may find you’re asked to carry out tasks that aren’t compliant with the GDPR.
These tasks could include buying and sending out emails to email marketing lists, or scraping data from social networks. Make sure you know what is and isn’t allowed under the GDPR, and be prepared to say ‘no’ to tasks that aren’t compliant.
Email marketing lists
If your company purchases email marketing lists, or has done in the past, you may come into trouble under the GDPR. Although many companies selling email lists will try to comply with GDPR, there’s no way of knowing for definite how these emails were collected, what the individuals consented to their information being used for, or if they consent to your specific company having their information.
If your marketing database contains emails that have been previously bought, it’s worth sending out an email to these individuals to ask them to opt in to receiving emails from you. Obviously, if they don’t opt in, make sure to remove them from your database immediately.
Data protection policies
Your company or department should already have a data protection policy in place, and make it available to all employees to review and follow. In light of the new GDPR regulations, this policy should be reviewed and updated to make sure it is compliant.
Steps for individuals to protect data
Each individual within a team needs to take steps to protect from a data breach. Make sure your team or department have strong passwords, enable two factor authentication where they can, and follow good safety practices.
These tips should make sure you’re ready for, and compliant with, the GDPR but for further information, check out the guides available from the Information Commissioner’s Office.