EU makes progress in data protection while Asia-Pacific (APAC) study reveals how data is being used.
The use of any consumer data as well as all digital marketing have been targeted by the EU Commission and Parliament which has agreed a Data Protection Regulation text.
The focus is on how companies interact with personal data including:
- Consent
- The right to object
- Profiling
- Consumer rights
New legislation could include potential fines of up to 4% of global turnover and policing of companies' use of personal data. Social networking sites could see the legal minimum age to register rise from 13 to 16, depending on the discretion of particular member states.
Marketers will need to be aware of the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Directive.
If the statistics from the Asian Pacific region are anything to go by, then global data protection across all digital channels will become more critical than ever.
APAC's November digital marketing stats reveal that Email is the consumers' preferred channel for communication (76% across Asia with social media (49%) the second preference.
70% of respondents chose display as one of the three most important mobile channels, up from 43% in 2014. However, respondents predicted that by 2020 this will have fallen back to around 44%.
83% of consumers in APAC trust brands compared to 50% globally. Indian consumers are the most trusting, being more likely to believe brands are working hard to improve quality of life.
Japanese travellers top the APAC countries in mobile bookings. With this the number of companies spending more than 10% of their market budget on mobile has increased from one in five in 2014 to one in ten in 2015.
The stats also clearly show the increasing importance of mobile across the APAC region, with more consumers chosing to browse and shop online as 4G connectivity and mobile adoption rises.