Guess what? GDPR is in full swing and the world is still turning, the sun hasn’t fallen out of the sky, and businesses are still sending mobile marketing messages!
After an exhausting barrage of GDPR news, views, and implied threats, all seems fine and dandy; what was all the fuss about?
In the build up to the Millennium the shop shelves were scarce of food, as people were scared into thinking that our computers would not be able to cope and would fail at the midnight gong.
The scaremongering for GDPR felt very similar. “You can’t send emails or mobile marketing messages anymore otherwise you will get a 20 million pound fine!”
But here we are weeks after the new GDPR rules, and business goes on. And so do emails and mobile marketing messages. Just as it did on 1st January 2000, life and business has gone on.
The important thing to remember with the new GDPR rules is that they were not aimed at genuine, honest, legitimate businesses, who treat and honour their customers and their data with care and respect every single day, and have done for years. The GDPR rules are not a revolution, they build on the existing data protection laws that many businesses already complied with.
It was aimed at the spammy, dodgy and careless businesses that have annoyed all of us everyday with their constant spam emails, messages and phone calls. You know the ones.
Unfortunately, and perhaps inevitably, some businesses/individuals have seen GDPR as a money maker and have scared perfectly legitimate businesses into complete despair and panic database deletion, when they actually had nothing to worry about.
Of course there are things that you need to follow and get into place for GDPR (read our guide here) but as long as your business has a legitimate interest for why it’s sending that email or mobile message, then it’s very likely that you are compliant.
Even the ICO have made several statements telling businesses not to panic…
“We’re not out to get people and it’s not all about fines. Although it is enforced, we’re not going to go and start fining all the small organisations… We pride ourselves on being a fair and proportionate regulator and this will continue under the GDPR.”
Elizabeth Denham, the Information Commissioner
So… have your appropriate systems in place. And then keep calm and carry on sending.