GDPR. CCPA. CPRA. What do these mean and do they matter?
Turns out, they do. These regulations and acts stand for something pretty important: your data privacy.
Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is aimed at guiding and regulating the way companies across the world handle customer personal information while strengthening data protection for all individuals within the EU.
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) gives consumers more control over the personal information that businesses collect about them. And the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) strengthened CCPA by allowing consumers to prevent businesses from sharing their personal data, correct inaccurate personal data, and limit businesses’ use of “sensitive personal information.”
In the US, the CCPA and CPRA are the “standard” for privacy that most sites adhere to, though more individual states are adopting similar laws with their own acronyms.
So, how can e-Commerce websites comply with these privacy laws? According to Wirewheel, a US e-Commerce website complies with CCPA if customers can access and delete private information and tell that company not to sell their private information.
But what about web visitors who aren’t customers yet? As prospects, is it illegal to contact them after they leave a website? NO! Unless they have opted out of having their data used for any marketing by that specific company upon first visiting that site.
E-Commerce websites can make this process easier by installing a consent “message” on the front page of their sites, giving visitors the option to immediately opt out. Conversely, if they don’t, this is considered “consent,” and allows a site to market to these visitors directly, but does NOT allow a company to sell any information to other companies.
Also, if you do market to these individuals, you must be sure that your messaging is relevant to your business in both subject line and content, and provides the recipient with an obvious
means to opt out of future communication.
Personal data use is a critical tool for marketing that can significantly increase an online customers experience but it must always be used responsibly. Here is a link to a site that lists data privacy and compliance companies if you would like to learn more (https://www.trustradius.com/data-privacy-management). NOTE: we are not partnered with, nor do we endorse any specific data privacy source or company.
In the end, our relationship with Privacy may always be complex, but knowing it’s there makes a huge difference.
So, thank you, Privacy. Thanks an awful lot…