GDPR VS. MARKETING AUTOMATION

GDPR VS. MARKETING AUTOMATION

The aim of the GDPR is to harmonise the protection of personal data throughout the European Union. The privacy philosophy has changed to protect personal information for everyone. GDPR attacks us for several months everywhere, websites, radio, television and in my case even family reunions were not without questions and doubts. It is necessary to approach this matter reasonably while respecting the protection of personal data – whether ours, as individuals or the information we process as entrepreneurs.

Companies that work with MA on a daily basis must follow the GDPR like any other website administrator. Of course, it is imperative to adequately protect the data through encryption, pseudonymisation and, where possible, through anonymisation. Companies also need to think about how long they need the data and what data they really require. Also, privacy should be implemented by default and taken into account in marketing automation activities. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on the cooperation of specialists for MA and GDPR specialists. In the future, they should sensitise their employees for the protection of the data. After the initial period of panic and chaos by GDPR, we will all get used to the new legal rules and will probably only see how companies with MA master this hurdle.

Let’s start with the fact that every activity of a marketing automation system can be reduced to profiling and data analysis. So the computer can undoubtedly combine more facts than humans. This arises only from the limited scope of human understanding.
When it comes to examples, we can start with a straightforward profile of purchasing preferences. Self-learning systems will tell us quickly what we can add to the shopping cart, based on our previous visits, but also on the anonymous data of other buyers. How does the GDPR work in this case?
However, we can do more – follow customers through the virtual path they left behind. Even if the portal cannot easily exchange personalised data (physical or legal), it does so using anonymous (statistical) information collected from various websites. Take the example of a client of the Marketing Automation Club. The company has hundreds of website visitors every day and proposes the right article to every website visitor. The visitor was on a different website a few minutes ago and then got a personalised offer, e.g., via e-mail from our customer. How did this happen? All this company needs is a large amount of data that is not directly related to the user or that represents encrypted data using only algorithms. Thus, data can be protected according to guidelines of the GDPR, but still be used.