Data privacy has emerged as a major concern in today’s era, where organizations leverage digital tools to amass a wealth of consumer data and conduct extensive analyses of their target and potential audiences. The significance of data privacy, data security, and data protection cannot be overstated in this age where data has become the new currency of business.

Most activities around digital marketing form a circular loop around using data to understand better, target, and engage customers, often gathered through cookies, social media profiles, and other tracking tools.

Most consumers need to learn how this data is collected, considering their lack of information on how ideal such information can be utilized for business gains and malicious motives. This then calls for businesses in the online space to play a pivotal role in consumer education on the importance of data management for improved business practice. 

However, the proper processing and handling of personal data is not only an ethical responsibility but also a legal requirement which, if not complied with, may lead to huge GDPR fines, financial consequences, and loss of reputation. But what is data privacy, security, and protection?

What is data privacy, security, and protection?

Data privacy can be defined as the proper handling through collection, processing, sharing, storage, usage, and deletion of collected personal information. It involves legislation, third-party contacts, policies, data governance, DSARs & data erasure and classification. It ensures compliance with data protection laws and regulations, including obtaining consent from customers before collecting their data, notifying them about their data use, and giving them the option to opt out.

On the other hand, data security ensures the protection of collected personal data from any unauthorized third-party access, malicious attack, or exploitation thereof. The methods used to achieve data security in organizations are not limited to activity monitoring, network security, access control, breach response, encryption, and multi-factor (2FA) authentication. Data protection then forms an umbrella perspective to data privacy and security as it involves safeguarding vital consumer information from corruption, compromise, or loss.

Further, the ratification of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) in digital marketing has, to a more significant extent, reshaped the marketing landscape as the availability of consumer data for analysis of behavior, patterns, and predictions gets tighter with time. 

Possibilities of non-compliance with data privacy guidelines

Ultimately, business non-compliance or non-adherence to “CONSENT” guidelines in data collection can essentially lead to privacy breaches with three adverse outcomes:

1. Financial and legal consequences, which may translate into heavy fines, compensation, and back-to-back court cases
2. Loss of customer loyalty due to careless handling or misappropriation of consumer data which eventually results in reduced sales and
3. Damaged business reputation and a tarnished brand image courtesy of viral netizen outcry upon online information circulation. 

Studies show that 78% of consumers would stop engaging with a brand online after a data breach, and 36% would stop doing business with the company. Hitherto, we can’t help but marvel at how prioritization of consumer privacy and data security acts as a digital lever for improved business brand and reputation.

Data Privacy breach: A case in point, Kenya.

It is no longer news but a critical thinking point for establishments in Kenya managing online business platforms and social media pages to keep their customers informed while pushing their products, considering the official notice by the Office of Data Protection published on 26th September 2023 that fined three data controllers for failure to observe Data Privacy Rights to Data subjects and non-compliance with the Data Protection Act.

Mulls Pride Ltd, a Digital Credit Provider (DCP) that operates KeCredit and Faircash mobile lending Apps, received a Penalty of KES 2,975,000 for using names and contact information of the Complainants, which were obtained from third parties, and subsequently used to send threatening messages and phone calls.

Casa Vera Lounge, a restaurant based along Ngong Road in Nairobi, was fined KES 1,850,000 for posting a reveler’s image on their social media platform without the Data subject’s consent. In contrast, Roma School, an Educational Institution based In Uthiru, was fined KES 4,550,000 for posting minors’ pictures without parental consent. The action of fines for the breaches above comes at a time when the collection of personal information by organizations is normal conduct, which could redefine consumer information data protection.

The commission seeks to ensure compliance with the Data Protection Act by implementing data protection principles and safeguards to ensure that the processing of personal data is by the provisions of the Act. Enforcement procedures await those who fail to comply.

Effecting Data Privacy: The Principles of GDPR

To actualize this endeavor in improving consumer data collection, marketers need to up their game to stay at the top of the curve by adhering to the seven principles of GDPR. These principles shift data collection from an unplanned mass data gathering to respectful usage for business convenience.

They include:

1. Lawfulness, fairness, and transparency – that the processing of personal data must be conducted in a lawful, fair, and transparent way 
2. Purpose limitation- that one should only process personal data for the purpose that it was originally intended and not reused for other purposes.
3. Data minimization – that one should not gather more personal data than they need to deliver the service, only collect and process the required amount of data.
4. Accuracy – that the personal data for processing must be correct and up to date and that one should take measures to ensure the same.
5.  Storage limitations – one should not store personal data that is no longer of use for its intended purpose.
6. Integrity and confidentiality – Integrity is about making sure that personal data is correct and cannot be manipulated by others, while privacy is about ensuring that only the people who should have access to the personal data are processing it.
7. Accountability- that as the data processor, one must be accountable for adequately processing personal data and compliance with the rules of the GDPR.

What are the emerging trends in data privacy?

Projected to be at the forefront of improving digital marketing, data privacy, security, and data protection is set to metamorphose shortly, and marketers might expect some changes in the future.

Two of these transformations stand out;

• Cookie-less world, which means that marketers will have to find other ways to tailor products for their consumers and monitor their behavior due to non-third-party access to data and 
• Decentralized identities will give power to the consumers to selectively share personal information in exchange for improved service delivery. 

Blockchain technology is already setting standards for this. This means that even data privacy needs to be more static to enable marketers to adjust to the novel innovations. Adaptability to these projected digital trends in consumer data management is the hot-cake ground digital firms must ride with.

Critical Roles of Digital Tech Firms Amid Data Privacy

Over and above, things don’t happen by themselves; people make them happen. Actualization of data privacy, security, and protection cannot just happen unless digital organizations invest in these new disciplines through; 

• Consumer training on their data privacy rights, methods of access, processing, manipulation, and usage through data privacy awareness campaigns, simple interactive media and illustrations, and 
• Marketers training on privacy laws and data security through understanding privacy principles by design and response techniques to data-privacy-related inquiries.

Until then, the digital marketing world remains cloudy as the possibilities of consumer data misappropriation stretch wider, raising fears about the effectiveness of organizational data privacy, security, protection, and management techniques for consumer safety.  

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