In the last year, much has changed in the data privacy landscape.
Between the world’s biggest tech companies introducing powerful new personal data management features to support their users’ privacy preferences and the enactment of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in July 2021, businesses and users are still adjusting to a new world.
The changes have introduced new ways for users to control and understand how their data is being used, but they have also made it more difficult for businesses to leverage their reach and customer data to meet their business goals. Fortunately, there have also been big improvements in the types of data privacy software companies can use to successfully navigate these new expectations without running into the risk of noncompliance.
So just how has the privacy landscape changed and how can businesses use the latest data privacy tools to their advantage?
A Year in the Evolution of Data Privacy
The biggest changes in data privacy in the last year have resulted from the introduction of new data privacy regulations that coincide with gradually increasing expectations for personal privacy on behalf of individual consumers.
In fact, just within the last year, businesses have had to adapt to the following changes:
- Effective in April 2021, Apple gave iPhone users the option to choose which of their installed apps are allowed to collect and track their behavior and share it among their other apps. The feature was immediately widely adopted by users, with the vast majority of them opting out of data sharing, which has drastically curtailed the amount of data about user preferences businesses have access to.
- In February 2022, Google followed in Apple’s footsteps and introduced privacy changes of its own, namely to how it conducts ad tracking on Android devices. These changes “will limit sharing of user data with third parties” and allow users to “operate without cross-app identifiers,” resulting in similar effects as the Apple change.
- The effective implementation of the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) in January 2023 requires changes to be made to business processes throughout 2022. Other states have introduced their own privacy regulations, including Virginia and Colorado.
As a result, businesses have continued to realize that focusing on privacy practices could help them gain a competitive edge as lawmakers and consumers become more and more aware and concerned about the use of personal data in marketing.
How Data Privacy Management Software Can Help
Fortunately, businesses now also have more powerful tools at their disposal to assist them with maintaining compliance and simplifying their data management tasks. Implementing industry-leading data privacy management software is an important step as brands continue to benefit from the effects of globalization. Customers might now be anywhere in the world, which means they may be protected by any number of different data privacy regulations that businesses will need to abide by.
In particular, making the decision to utilize industry-leading data privacy software companies like Dataships can offer your business:
- Intuitive and comprehensive internal and customer-facing tools that simplify how your organization controls privacy settings and manages consent.
- Automated features to tailor marketing lists based on customer consent, geographic location, and other preferences, which simplifies marketing efforts while helping to avoid noncompliance.
- Native integrations that make managing customer data easy by weaving compliance controls into existing workflows.
- The ability to stay nimble and up to date as regulations change and as your customer base expands into new markets.
Future-Proof Your Data Privacy Compliance
From balancing budgets to wowing customers, business leaders and marketing professionals like you already have so much on their plates. The additional responsibility of staying up with global data privacy regulations can seem complex and overwhelming.
Fortunately, your business doesn’t have to handle it all on your own anymore; data privacy software from leaders like Dataships can bring the automation, efficiency, and rigor your business needs to handle compliance without the headache.
Is your team ready to see the power of Dataships firsthand? Click here to request your own personalized demo now.