In late January 2012, a draft text of the European Union’s new Data Protection Regulation (a wider overhaul of the 1995 Data Protection Directive) was published. The draft is going to be debated and discussed by the European Parliament and by the Council on Ministers, and any changes to the draft regulation could take up to 4 years to come into play.
 
To see full details of the EU Data Protection Regulation read the press release here
 
We recently posted about our extended DMA membership, and the value it gives us. Something the DMA is currently involved in is lobbying for the rights of the direct marketing industry, and this means working on behalf of its members to ensure the draft EU Data Protection Regulation is beneficial to both the industry and individuals.
 
The DMA state that the above draft ‘does not strike a fair balance between protecting data privacy rights of the individual and the interest of businesses to use data for marketing purposes.’

So how could this draft affect your business?
Here is a brief outline of the four key areas that could impact on direct marketing companies:
 
Opt in / Opt out
Potentially companies would have to obtain explicit consent from consumers, and won’t be able to take for granted that they consent to receiving marketing informtion, even if they have previously interacted with them
 
IP addresses
This draft regulation would class IP addresses as personal data (currently it is vague as to whether or not this is the case). Utilising web analytics could be thing of the past, stopping digital marketers from examining customer journeys.
 
The right to be forgotten
Potentially giving individuals a right to ensure companies to delete any information that they hold about them. Plus if any information had been passed on to 3rd parties, companies would have to ensure the 3rd party deletes the information too.
 
Subject access request
This could mean increased costs for companies when supplying individuals with copies of the information they hold, the draft proposes removal of the £10 fee for processing this request.

These are not the only changes proposed in the draft – read more about the changes in detail on the DMA website.
 
It’s important to remember that this proposal is still in draft format, and still being discussed and debated.
 
We’re thankful that as a member of the DMA that we are kept informed about these proposals. They continue to make the email marketing industry as safe as possible for individuals and consumers, as well as protecting the interests of the email marketing professional.
 
Here at Extravision we will be making sense of the latest information, and putting plans in place based around the directive once it is confirmed. And of course keeping all our clients informed of what exactly it means for them.