GDPR - 365 days of miscommunication

It’s nearly a year since GDPR first came into effect, and on the face of it, it seems to have made a significant positive impact.

Across Europe, over 59,000 personal data breaches have been reported and European data protection agencies have issued fines of almost €56m in total. Indeed, the European Data Protection Board’s own report highlights just how well their cooperation and consistency mechanisms are working.

But dig deeper and all is not quite what it seems. For one, that figure of €56m in fines includes the €50m was levied against one firm - Google.

Even worse, in our opinion, is the fallout from the terrible advice dished out by ‘GDPR consultants’ in the lead up to 29th May 2018, and beyond.

GDP-argh

Here’s the problem in a nutshell: you don’t actually need any training to give GDPR advice and anyone can call themselves a GDPR consultant. And people did, in their droves.

GDPR became a gold rush for snakeoil salespeople and charlatans looking to make a bit of consultancy cash - often using scare tactics to sell themselves in.

The results of which have been rearing their heads over the last 12 months.

In an article for The Guardian, deputy information commissioner Steve Wood spoke of the “unnecessary and...illegal” emails businesses were advised to send as a result of bad advice.

Others pitched GDPR as being solely about consent. Speaking in the Law Gazette, Chris Combemale, chief executive of the DMA, gives one example of a lower-league football club which had 100,000 supporters on its database before May 2018, which dropped 97% following advice to gain double opt-in.

Other companies have been given similarly bad advice - being told that anyone handling data cannot be line managed by marketing or sales, or that you can’t target a website visitor with a Facebook advert using its Pixel tool, or that you should delete your contacts entirely unless they’ve double opted in.

Bad advice can have a big impact on businesses. And if it has on yours, there are things you can do to help:

• If you need to build up your leads again
• If you need to understand your customers better (but don't have the data)
• If you still need to get GDPR compliant (like the majority of UK firms)

So, what does GDPR look like one year on?

Well, customers are more aware than ever about their data, more companies are being reported to regulators on data grounds than ever before, and a sea of terrible advice has left a lot of businesses licking their wounds.