Marketers wondering how a national privacy law might affect them should look at Europe. Five years in, companies seem to have accepted GDPR, judging by a new study from Piwik
PRO.
For instance, 82.6% of respondents agree that brands can adhere to privacy laws and effectively market their products — up from 63% last
year.
And 75% say respecting online privacy is important. Of the remainder, 19.3% neither agree or disagree, and only 5.7% reject the
idea.
Of course, 71.% also admit respecting privacy is a challenge for businesses.
Only 39.7% feel GDPR has had a positive effect on their
business, the remainder do not. But they also don’t see that GDPR has hurt them — only 17.7% say it has harmed them.
Yet 73.7% say GDPR requirements are easy to
understand, and 62.7% that they are not difficult to implement.
Why are firms complying? They cite:
- Building trust with consumers —
65.7%
- Company values — 54.3%
- Legal obligation — 39.3%
- Risk of fines — 12.7%
Overall, 70% are satisfied with their marketing stack’s level of compliance, while 15.7% disagree and 13.3% are unsure.
As for the location of data, 70.7% of
respondents know where the data from their marketing stack is being stored.
For 60%, marketing data always remains in the European Economic Area, while 24.3% keep data outside the EEA,
and 17.7% simply don’t know.
Meanwhile, 73% would prefer to buy European when seeking marketing technology instead of big U.S. tech companies, up almost 25% YoY. But privacy
compliance is far from the main reason:
- Price — 50%
- Local hosting — 42%
- Customer support —4 2%
- The offered feature set — 35.7%
- Privacy compliance — 30%
Piwik PRO surveyed 300 anonymous
respondents from 30 European countries in April 2023. Of these, the largest number came from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. They included CEOs, heads of marketing, CMOs and COOs
of mid-size and enterprise-grade companies.