Marketing data privacy and compliance: best practices in 2024

When customers trust you with their data —a crucial part of your marketing and sales strategies — it’s your duty to respect their privacy and handle their data ethically and legally. 

If you don’t, you risk noncompliance penalties and fines, loss of customer trust, and reputational damage. That’s why it’s so important to take responsibility for marketing data privacy and ensure relevant regulations and guidelines are followed.

As regulations evolve, it’s challenging to ensure you’re always up to date on data privacy and compliance best practices. Here are recommendations to help, plus insights into tools that can make this process easier.

What is data privacy in marketing?

Data privacy in marketing involves protecting individuals’ personal information collected to enable marketing activities. This includes handling data ethically and responsibly across all marketing activities, as well as using technologies, policies, and strategies to safeguard customer data. 

There are numerous data protection regulations across the globe, and companies need to ensure they follow all the relevant laws that may apply to them, which typically means the laws that protect customers’ and users where they reside, not where the company is located. All stakeholders involved in marketing should be responsible for this on an ongoing basis, but especially the heads of marketing and sales departments, and in some cases, a data protection officer. 

By prioritizing data privacy and using relevant data privacy tools, you show commitment to ethics and legal responsibilities, build trust with customers, and mitigate noncompliance risks and penalties. 

Why you need to pay attention to consumer data security 

Protecting customer data is vital for several reasons. Not adhering to privacy policy requirements and laws can result in monetary fines and other legal penalties. However, protecting consumer data isn’t only about legal compliance; it’s also about respecting your customers, behaving ethically, and building trust and long-term relationships with increasingly privacy-savvy customers.

Data privacy regulations and guidelines for the marketing industry

Data privacy for marketing is complex, with many different regulations that differ per region and even per industry or type of marketing activity. Companies often need to stay up to date and comply with multiple privacy regulations, guidelines, and frameworks that are relevant to their marketing activities. 

Here are some of the main data protection regulations that apply: 

• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
• Digital Markets Act (DMA)
• California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) / California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA)
• ePrivacy Directive (ePD) 

But keep in mind there are many more region-specific and country-specific regulations, such as the Telecommunications-Telemedia Data Protection Act (TTDSG) in Germany and the Data Protection Act (DPA) in the UK.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

The GDPR came into force in 2018. The framework contains 88 Articles that regulate personal data use and processing, and responsibility for keeping that safe. It covers the data of businesses and consumers located in EU’s 27 member countries plus additional three European Economic Area countries — regardless of where the data controller is based. 

The GDPR requires all organizations offering goods or services to EU residents and processing personal data to comply with the regulation, to uphold individuals’ privacy rights, and to safeguard personal data collected and processed. There are seven principles that must be implemented and eight consumer privacy rights that must be respected under the GDPR. 

Digital Markets Act (DMA)

The European Commission (EC) introduced the DMA in 2022 to regulate digital markets, protect consumer privacy, and level the competitive playing field between big tech giants and smaller businesses. 

This regulatory framework focuses on fostering fair competition, enhancing consumer protection, and promoting the digital ecosystem through better user consent and data handling practices. 

The DMA focuses on regulating the following companies — designated gatekeepers under the law —  in turn also affects smaller companies that use these gatekeepers’ platforms and services, such as Google Ads, for their sales and marketing, as customers of the gatekeepers must meet data privacy requirements in order for the gatekeepers themselves to achieve privacy compliance throughout their platform ecosystems.

• Microsoft (owner of LinkedIn and Windows PC OS)
• Meta (owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and others)
• Alphabet (owner of Google, YouTube, and Android)
• ByteDance (owner of TikTok)
• Booking.com (designated in May 2024)
• Amazon (owner of Amazon Marketplace)
• Apple (owner of iOS and the App Store)

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) / California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA)

The United States doesn’t have a unified federal data protection law yet, so to date states have been passing their own data privacy laws. The first of these was California’s Consumer Privacy Act, which was passed in 2018 and went into effect in 2020. It was also expanded and amended, functionally being replaced by the California Privacy Rights Act, which came into effect in 2023. 

Like the other state-level laws, each protects the data and privacy of residents of that state, and requires compliance from companies doing business in that state. To date all US state-level data privacy laws use an opt-out model of consent, so, unlike the GDPR and many other laws, user consent is not required prior to collecting and using their data in most cases. Companies do have to enable users to opt out of data processing, targeted advertising, or profiling, however, with a “Do Not Sell Or Share My Personal Information” link prominently displayed on the website.

California is the only US state to date that enables a private right of action, allowing consumers to sue a company for damages resulting from a violation. It’s also the only state to create an agency to handle enforcement of the laws and other functions, the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA). In all other states this is under the Attorney General’s office, which it used to be in California until the CPRA came into effect.

ePrivacy Directive (ePD)

ePrivacy encompasses both the ePrivacy Directive (ePD) and proposed ePrivacy Regulation. The ePD, also known as the “cookie law,” specifically addresses privacy issues in digital communication and applies to electronic communications in the EU. The current ePD guidelines are meant to be implemented at a national level in each EU country. 

These guidelines stipulate that communication over public networks must be kept confidential, require user consent for cookies, regulate direct marketing practices, and set security guidelines for digital communication services. 

6 best practices for collecting data and storing it safely

Data collection and regulatory compliance is complex, but it’s essential for doing business and for customer-centric growth. Privacy-led marketing is becoming companies’ competitive advantage. 

With so many regulations and requirements in place, what are some of the data privacy best practices to ensure you collect and store data ethically? Here are six that you should implement.

“Prioritize data privacy compliance and involve qualified legal counsel and/or privacy experts to enable your company to achieve and maintain compliance as the tech and legal landscapes change. This will also enable your company to produce and update comprehensive policies that evolve with laws and technologies, and to protect the company’s data, marketing operations, and enforce security with third parties.” — Adelina Peltea, CMO of Usercentrics

1. Regularly update your privacy policy

Organizations must have clear, comprehensive, and accurate privacy policies on their websites and apps. These should be adapted for each marketing strategy and work well with the consumer behavior of your specific target audience.

However, you also need to ensure these are revised regularly as laws and regulations change. Privacy policies are living legal documents, and you should review and update them as part of your regular processes to ensure you maintain compliance and transparency. It’s also necessary to note the last date of change and make the previous version accessible.

For example, a new marketing activity might require you to obtain new consent for different types of data collection, or a strategy targeting a new region may require you to follow additional regulations. Clearly communicate updates to your consumers and ensure they can easily opt out (if relevant) if they aren’t comfortable with new activities.

2. Get informed consent during data collection 

Informed consent is vital for data compliance in many regions when collecting customer data, which makes privacy in marketing a priority. 

When you gather first-party data and follow privacy-led data collection practices, you must get explicit and informed consent before you collect and use individuals’ data. You also need to keep records of what data was collected and exactly what was consented to, and users must be able to change or revoke consent in the future. 

You need to cease data collection and processing as soon as possible if consent is withdrawn and are required to correct or delete data, among other functions, if requested by the data subject it came from. Specific rights vary among privacy laws.

Consent requests are often the first interaction a consumer has with a website or app, and first impressions count. It’s essential to collect, store, and signal consent with clarity, transparency, and accuracy in a manner that doesn’t get in customers’ way. 

A consent management platform (CMP) like Usercentrics CMP automates and streamlines the consent collection, storage, and signaling process, which helps you adhere to regulations and protect your customers’ privacy.

3. Verify and clean email lists frequently

Managing email lists ethically and efficiently is an essential part of a marketer’s role in data protection. Consent given once isn’t enough — it needs to be given for each new marketing activity. Consent also expires, with timelines varying by regulation, meaning you’ll need to renew consent periodically. 

Email marketers also need to ensure personal data is accurate, up to date, and accessible if a customer wants to rectify, view, or delete their data. For example, the GDPR gives individuals rights such as the “right of access” (Art. 15 GDPR) and “the right to be forgotten” (Art. 17 GDPR). 

Marketers must make it easy for consumers to make these requests and to enforce them, as well as for customers to unsubscribe. Using double opt-in subscription and regularly removing unsubscribers and out of date information are also good data privacy practices. 

4. Develop ethical awareness 

Data protection isn’t just about checking boxes. It involves a fundamental shift in every marketer’s attitude to data protection and data ethics. It’s about understanding the value of privacy-led marketing strategies. You have to earn and maintain customer trust, and this requires accountability from the people collecting personal data from customers. 

Another important point here is data minimization: quality over quantity. Instead of collecting large quantities of data, often with questionable consent in the case of some third-party data, only collect the data you need for a particular activity, and retain it only as long as is needed to fulfill that purpose. Focus on collecting quality data that gives meaningful insights from your relevant target audience, ideally zero- and first-party data that comes from them directly. 

5. Ensure control over data visibility

Data privacy isn’t only about increasing security to protect data from external breaches; it’s also about protecting it within your organization. 

Not every member of an organization needs to have access to customer data, so you should have systems in place to ensure that only relevant and authorized parties can access it for a specific purpose. 

This applies to vendors, suppliers, third parties, and technologies like AI platforms too. In the words of Usercentrics CMO Adelina Peltea, “Marketers want to break down silos to gain a 360-degree view of customers, but at the same time it’s important to limit access to data only to those who specifically need it, and for specific functions.” 

Therefore, regularly monitor and update who can access your data — both internally and externally — in order to remain compliant. Customers also need to have control over their data. They should be able to gain access to their data and receive a copy of it under some laws, as well as being able to request to have you modify or delete it in a timely manner.

6. Use a consent management platform (CMP)

With so many different regulations, frequent changes in privacy laws, different types of data, and different levels of consent required, the important duty of maintaining data privacy can become complex, time-consuming, and stressful. 

“​​The more regulations and requirements there are, the bigger the demands on companies, which can be difficult to manage, especially for small organizations with limited resources,” says Peltea. “There are great tools to help companies manage requirements, like consent management platforms and privacy policy generators, to help with automation and management.”

When you use a CMP like Usercentrics CMP, it’s easier to manage consent, store consent data, signal consent to advertising and analytics partners, and stay compliant with new regulations. This helps to protect your business and enables you to focus on refining your marketing strategy and growing your customer base.

Challenges of marketing data security

From keeping up with evolving regulations, mitigating risks, protecting data from security breaches, and ensuring your data isn’t accidentally shared, keeping your marketing data secure can be challenging. Here are some common pitfalls and how to avoid them. 

“More regulations, more data, more systems, more partners, more uses, and more bad actors mean more threats to companies’ privacy compliance and data security. Companies need expert management of data and privacy operations, strong security policies and protocols, ongoing staff education, and robust tools to protect themselves and their customers.” — Adelina Peltea, CMO of Usercentrics

Unintentional sharing of data

Data is more vulnerable when it’s downloaded, stored, or backed up offline on portable media. This makes it more difficult to store securely and protect, as well as more challenging to process data consistently and minimize human error. 

Even with the best intentions, colleagues can accidentally share data and put it at risk. They could misplace a device, or a device could be stolen. They could fall for a phishing email that could give bad actors access to your company’s systems. Ongoing training for your team members, implementing internal data storage policies, and limiting access to data can reduce this risk.

Data breaches and unauthorized access

Data breaches are a danger for any company that collects data, and when compromised, your customer data can be deleted or illicitly sold. In the case of a data breach, you can be subject to fines and penalties, be ordered to cease business operations, lose customers, and suffer from a damaged reputation. In marketing specifically, this has an impact both on your ability to retain customers and generate new leads and partnerships. 

To avoid these situations, take proactive steps and adopt robust cybersecurity policies, procedures, and measures to prevent people other than the data controller and authorized data processors from gaining access to your marketing data. Additionally, if you need to notify customers about a data breach, do so as soon as possible and be empathetic and transparent in your communication. Where possible, do whatever you can to mitigate damage.

Manage user consent and comply with data privacy regulations with Usercentrics CMP

Marketers can’t afford to let half-hearted data privacy efforts undermine their operations or put their business at risk. That’s why a leading consent management platform like Usercentrics CMP can be a game changer for implementing watertight data privacy processes. 

Usercentrics helps organizations stay compliant with essential regulations like the GDPR, CCPA, and more. It enables organizations to collect, manage, and document user consent on their websites and apps efficiently and compliantly without compromising user experience. 

A CMP also eases concerns for customers who are increasingly conscious and informed  about their data and privacy, and gives them control over access to their data. Usercentrics can provide solutions to fit all kinds of companies’ requirements, offering privacy by design with over 2,200 legal templates, in-depth analytics, and support to help your business take data privacy seriously and fulfill compliance obligations.