The road to GDPR has been far from a cake walk — especially for those in the digital media industry. Even though we’re on the other side of the May 25, 2018 GDPR enforcement date, GDPR continues to be the cause of major shifts in compliance strategy for today’s publishers. Ad vendors are implementing major changes in order to comply with the GDPR’s stringent notice and consent requirements, including Google, who announced considerable revisions to their own consent tool.
Google recently released an update to their consent manager provider tool (CMP), adding fresh concerns for publishers due to GDPR. Publishers using Funding Choices, Google’s default CMP, will be limited to pass data to no more than 12 ad tech vendors — including Google. Twelve ad tech vendors is far below the number most publishers currently offer.
Take sports publisher, GiveMeSport. Last year, GiveMeSport whittled down their list from 23 different ad tech partners to 5 partners in an attempt to gain more control over their ad inventory sales. But even after slimming down lists of different ad tech partners, they still uncovered that a lot of companies are continuing to process their visitor’s personal data in ways that could be illegal under GDPR. This makes Google’s meager 12 vendor maximum alarming for publishers planning to use Funding Choices.
Sure, publishers are able to choose to use another CMP or build their own consent managing tool. However, Funding Choices is the top fit for many small-to-medium sized publishers that need an easy, reliable way to comply with GDPR.
With these new stipulations adding to the complexity of GDPR compliance, many publishers are left to find new ways to safely supplement the new EU law.
Email marketing offers a useful, compliant channel for publishers
Email can help you maximize the reach of your content while also offering a proven consent-driven marketing channel. While the GDPR does have a direct impact on email marketing, forward-thinking ESPs are taking steps to ensure that their platforms are compliant.
The GDPR need not take away from the powerful, consistent ROI email marketing provides. With new features we’ve built to address your needs under the GDPR, Campaign Monitor users will be able to comply with their obligations as controllers of their subscriber’s personal data.
Here are a few ways we’re doing this:
- New features in our subscriber forms that allow you to obtain clearer consent. Because consent is a huge priority under the GDPR, we’ve made significant updates to our subscriber forms. Our forms now include new, customizable “consent to email” and “consent to track” fields. We’ve also added an optional field where you can link to your company’s online privacy policy and cookie policy.
- Viewable consent status for email and tracking. You’re now able to see your subscribers’ consent status. A new column in the “List View” allows you to see if a subscriber has requested to not track their email activity. This value also is featured in each subscriber’s profile.
- Privacy by design. We’re implementing internal privacy-by-design guidelines and training our product and engineering teams on GDPR. This ensures that data privacy principles are taken into account during the earliest stages of feature and product development.
- Addressing data subject’s requests. When your subscriber reaches out to you to exercise their rights (e.g. right of erasure or right of rectification), it’s our responsibility to assist you in complying with that request insofar as it pertains to data we process on your behalf. We’ve updated our platform with features that help you fulfill that subscriber’s request in a timely manner.
- Updated security measures. We ensure that appropriate technical and organizational measures are in place for the safeguarding of personal data that we’re processing on your behalf.
Wrap up
As ad vendors become increasingly consent driven, it’s crucial for publishers to invest in high-performing, GDPR-compliant verticals to get content in front of their audience. Visit our Trust Center to learn more about how we’re equipping publishers to achieve email marketing success under GDPR.