• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, May 6, 2018

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) becomes effective on May 25, yet according to a new survey from the World Federation of Advertisers, slightly more than half of respondents still have “major knowledge gaps” in their understanding of the regulations and their implications.

 I get that. Lots of people work better under the pressure of a deadline, right?

The survey was based on responses from 34 companies with cumulative ad spending of more than $65 billion. It was conducted in March and April.

Almost 70% said that the highest priority regarding GDPR was reviewing procedures to handle consumer requests related to their personal data (e.g. erase or rectify). That said, just 12% said they’ve implemented such procedures. No pressure people, you still have 19 days until zero hour!

Also high on the GDPR-related priority list: Reviewing contracts with third parties like agencies as companies are responsible for data use across their digital advertising ecosystems.

About half responded they are hiring additional data protection specialists or outside consultants to help get them GDPR compliant ready.

It will be interesting to see what kind of enforcement effort European regulators display after the new rules go into effect. Judging from the results of this survey, it sounds like some companies are betting it won’t be very aggressive.

And without aggressive enforcement, those knowledge gaps the survey points out aren’t likely to close any time soon.