• by Ray Schultz , March 12, 2021

A post-Brexit split that could affect email marketers and others may be brewing between the UK and the EU over the GDPR.

The UK -- which reportedly expected to follow the guidelines in GDPR even after Brexit -- may tweak the rules, at least slightly, to drive growth and help the economy recover from the pandemic, Reuters reports. 

“There is a sweet spot for the UK whereby we hold onto many of the strengths of GDPR in terms of giving people security about their data,” said Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden, Reuters adds. “But there are obviously areas where I think we can make more progress.”

Email marketers have faced regulatory actions in the under GDPR for sending messages to people without permission. But the main burden on emailers under GDPR is more in their use of data and the need to grant access to consumers to the information held on them.   

According to Reuters, Dowden says: “In our rule making, we can take a slightly less European approach as set out in GDPR by focusing more on the outcomes that we want to have and less on the burdens of the rules imposed on individual businesses,” he said. 

The UK will move cautiously and not try to water down GDPR rules, Dowden adds. The UK’s data protection has been seen as adequate by the EU, Reuters says.

But ITPro cites warnings by legal experts that “the recently-secured draft data adequacy decision could be jeopardized if the EU sees any signs that the UK is attempting to break away from core GDPR principles.