Modern digital marketing has become more complicated due to the rise of cybercrime. Therefore, safeguarding customers’ data privacy is equally important as offering personalization services for an ideal digital marketing company in India. In fact, personalization and customer data privacy go hand in hand. On one side, as a responsible digital marketing agency, you have to deliver the best customer experience—a goliath task mainly focused around extracting quality information from comprehensive consumer data. Meanwhile, you also have to know how much data to acquire so that it doesn’t get mishandled or fall into the wrong hands.
The work of a digital marketing company no longer revolves around creating high-end, insight-based, and creative campaigns alone. You must also make sure to take adequate measures when it comes to acquiring, using, and storing consumer’s data.
However, with a rapid wave of campaigns depending on data-driven insights, it sometimes requires more than fixing to maintain a balance between data processing and data privacy. not just your digital marketing agency but also the business’s responsibility to implement and uphold ultra-modern customer data privacy for customers.
What is data privacy?
We live in an age where all human data is available and shared online. However, that does not mean people don’t care about personal data. When people share information with a platform or app, they are voluntarily providing sensitive information. So, it becomes the responsibility of the business to ensure the safety of customers’ private matters.
Data privacy refers to a set of regulations determining the quantity and quality of data to be distributed, used, and shared online. Some jurisdictions have implemented strong data privacy laws because an invasion of personal information is regarded as an invasion of human rights. Meanwhile, businesses from different jurisdictions can use customer’s data as they please.
Businesses or digital services often acquire consumer data to develop personalized customer experiences, analyze customer’s behavior, and conduct highly efficient marketing campaigns. While most companies or websites ask you before taking your information, some don’t (especially those who don’t follow strong data privacy guidelines). This is dangerous, as one can misuse your personal data.
What is considered an infringement of consumer data privacy?
- Selling customer’s personal data to third parties
- Tracking and monitoring user’s behavior
- Gathering data without the user’s consent
Why is data privacy important?
Data privacy is essential to keep customer’s data safe and secure from security breaches and misuse. Nowadays, audiences are becoming smarter, and most don’t like to provide their personal information. Meanwhile, some people only prefer providing personal data as long as they are convinced their data will be kept safe and away from third-party marketers.
It doesn’t matter from which jurisdiction a company or website is registered; no one has the right to misuse and toy with customer’s data privacy. That’s why companies (small, medium, and large) have started implementing robust data protection practices to show their customers or visitors that their data will be handled with extreme care.
The fear of becoming a victim of cybercrime is becoming eminent as they witness even large-scale companies like Target, Home Depot and Equifax failing to provide adequate safety measures. Equifax has lost $4 billion in value following the data breach. However, large companies have the money and tools to deal with data breaches, as they have the money to pay fines and settle millions of dollars worth of lawsuits. However, small business doesn’t have the luxury of settling lawsuits for millions.
Drafting a privacy policy containing information regarding what information you collect from users, how you use that information, and for what purposes can save you from any future lawsuits. For this, you may need the help of a digital marketing company in India that can help you draft a privacy policy as per international standards.
Five ways to protect your customers data privacy
Learn and adopt privacy laws.
Each country has its own privacy laws for digital assets, and businesses that do not comply with these laws are fined, penalized, and prosecuted by the law. These data privacy laws can be tricky because a company cannot stick to a country’s law. To simplify, if you run a website in America, but your website is accessible by users from Europe, then you have to comply with the EU’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).
Industries like healthcare, finance, and law, including small businesses, are deeply scrutinized by the governing law to ensure they comply with data privacy laws. For healthcare, online businesses must comply with HIPAA, and for finance, businesses must follow the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 for consumer data privacy in America.
The most influential privacy law remains the EU’s GDPR, enacted in May 2018. The DGPR follows “privacy by design,” which limits data collection and involves security measures to prevent data breaches and leaks. All companies in the EU must comply with GDPR, regardless of their location.
Limit your data collection to the necessary elements.
Sometimes the name and email of the consumer are enough to convert a sale. So you don’t need more valuable information if your objective is to sell your products or services. Similarly, you only need consumers’ phone numbers and addresses when delivering goods or services to their homes. As a small business, when you collect information, you should state the reason why you collect the information. This helps in building a good image in the eyes of users.
Apps: when you activate an app, it asks for permission to access certain data points such as numbers, messages, cameras, GPS, etc. You should clearly specify the reasons why you need these permissions in a document or statement, allowing your users to read and understand. Specify what kind of information you collect and for what reasons.
When drafting a privacy and security policy, one needs to be extra cautious, ensuring they cover all the points. Even missing a point can cost you a lot. For instance, if X digital marketing agency in Andheri forgot to mention they collect users phone numbers even though they do, then users can sue them for collecting their phone numbers without their consent.
Draft a privacy policy.
If you don’t want to entangle yourself in legal issues, you should draft a privacy policy for customers.
Your company’s privacy policy must comprise the following:
- Types of information you collect via your website and app
- Reasons behind collecting user information
- What security measures do you take to safeguard users’ privacy?
- How you store user’s personalized information
- Details of data transfers
- Whether you share data with third parties
- Mention whether you are partners with affiliated websites, third parties, or organizations (if any).
- Cookie Policies
limits customer data visibility
Since your customer’s data is extremely valuable, you cannot let everyone access it. This is why you should use an access control model to limit the data’s access to only specific people. People with the authority to access these data must be trained to handle them and keep them secured from unauthorized access.
Implement stringent digital security measures.
There are plenty of affordable and quality options for digital security. You can start investing in internet security to secure your network and network devices like servers and routers. Assuming these devices can be hacked, you must implement security protocols on your company’s computers and mobile devices, including cloud-based software. You can limit access to cloud-based systems and add additional digital encryption to prevent data breaches
Sounds complicated? There is nothing that a reputed digital marketing agency cannot handle. Most digital marketing services have professionals to help businesses draft customized privacy policies, safeguarding them from future lawsuits. They have years of experience creating policies and strategies to secure customer’s personalized data from cyber threats and vulnerabilities. It also includes devising a foolproof contingency plan if anything goes wrong.
If you are looking for professional help to draft a security policy for your website, then a reputed digital marketing agency in Mumbai can help. You don’t
How do I find the best digital marketing agency offering customer data privacy services?
An online search is the best way. If you are looking for a digital marketing agency in Mumbai, make sure to check their online reviews and rankings to get an idea of the quality of services they offer.
