It is 6 months since the GDPR came into effect. Anxieties about the legislation, which flowed through online industries before its implementation, remain commonplace.

The new regulations supersede the Data Protection Directive and have standardised protections across Europe. In respect of business, this means they have bound organisations that operate within the European Union (EU) or European Economic Area (EEA), or that employ or serve its citizens, to a single rulebook.

Tech Trends spoke to Barry Cook, VFS Global’s Data Protection Officer, a renowned international cyber-security and data protection expert with experience in sectors such as banking, pharma and aviation. VFS Global is the world’s largest outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions worldwide. They handle and process millions of visa applications and citizen service applications involving sensitive personal information of applicants. VFS Global became one of just 15 per cent of global companies to achieve compliance with GDPR ahead of its introduction. If Barry’s insights into these complex times don’t put your mind to rest, what will!

If recent industry surveys are to be believed, many organisations are still not clear on how to comply with GDPR
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Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

If you’re a business owner and you’ve not yet considered your organisation’s obligations in respect of the GDPR, you urgently need to
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How do you think businesses are managing the new regulations?

If recent industry surveys are to be believed, many organisations are still not clear on how to comply with the GDPR, and how, exactly, the regulations will impact their culture, costs and operations.

So, if you’re a business owner and you’ve not yet considered your organisation’s obligations in respect of the GDPR, you urgently need to do so. This needn’t be costly or overly burdensome. It simply requires an examination of your existing procedures, and, where necessary, bringing them into line with the new regulatory baselines.

With all your experience, what top five insights can you offer businesses trying to tackle GDPR?

Customers and clients leave substantial data trails of their personal lives online – particularly when making purchases; submitting enquiries; consenting to online cookie policies
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1 – Identifying where you hold personal information

This is the golden fleece of Data Protection; customers and clients leave substantial data trails of their personal lives online – particularly when making purchases; submitting enquiries; consenting to online cookie policies. This data will be processed and handled by multiple teams, and systems, in companies large and small. So, identifying where and what personal data you hold within the structures of your organisation is imperative. It will not only demonstrate your organisation’s compliance with the minimum baseline for this area but make sourcing data, in the event, of a subject request, a simpler task for you or your team.

It is also important to remember that unstructured web data falls within the scope of the legislation – this includes social media posts, profile images of customers, IP addresses of their devices, their geographic locations etc. etc – so do be sure to add these to your appraisal.

This guide should be useful in providing a structured approach identifying where data may be found in your systems:
Ultimately, though, improved collaboration between teams for the delivery of GDPR compliance will be key.

Identifying where and what personal data you hold within the structures of your organisation is imperative
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2 – Lawful basis for processing

A significant consequence of the GDPR for businesses operating in the European sphere is that they are now compelled to demonstrate a lawful basis for processing a set of personal data. The most commonly aired basis is that of consent. However, consent can be withdrawn or not given. Therefore, careful consideration should be given to your business model when deciding on the lawful basis that you will use.

A simple method to determine if consent is a suitable lawful basis is to apply the NEED – WANT – DROP filter to the personal data that supports your business activity. If you “NEED” the data for the business activity and can’t run the activity without this, then avoid consent and look to another lawful basis such as “fulfilment of contract”. If you “WANT” the data, typically for marketing, then consent is a suitable lawful basis. If however, you have or want the personal data but you cannot perform legal processing on it, then you must “DROP” this data.

A simple method to determine if consent is a suitable lawful basis is to apply the NEED – WANT – DROP filter to the personal data that supports your business activity
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Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

GDPR legislation enhances an individual’s right with regards to their personal data. One of these rights is the right of erasure (right to be forgotten) i.e. to request that a company erases the data it holds on them
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3 – A customer’s right to be forgotten

The new legislation enhances an individual’s right with regards to their personal data. One of these rights is the right of erasure (right to be forgotten) – i.e. to request that a company erases the data it holds on them. And, since this needs to happen within a reasonably short timeframe, on receipt of a request, it is important that you know where data is stored in your processes, and you have a procedure in place to delete that data so that you can respond quickly and efficiently.

A lot of commonly used business software does not support the selective deletion of data, so this will be a good time to have a discussion with your IT people to see if, and how the right of erasure can be supported. To avoid potential fines and reputational damage for non-compliance, you may also need to introduce automated workflows for triggering and confirming the erasure of data from multiple internal and external systems. There are several good products on the market that will support workflow management, and some will even create a webpage for your clients to exercise their rights.

GDPR enhances an individual’s right with regards to their personal data
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4 – Changing your business culture to achieve compliance

The potential reputational damage, and financial costs, associated with a business failing to comply with the GDPR mean it is crucial employers take steps now to embed compliance within their organisational culture. Developing a culture of transparency both externally towards the client with respect to how their data is processed and also internally with staff so that incidents with personal data are escalated and addressed. As part of this transparency is the obligation of businesses to demonstrate their compliance

This is achieved through clear, documented records about how they store, secure, and process data through their systems, as well as the steps they have taken to improve data sourcing and handling among their staff. There are useful guides, which examine data storage and training opportunities for staff.

The potential reputational damage, and financial costs, associated with a business failing to comply with the GDPR mean it is crucial employers take steps now to embed compliance within their organisational culture
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5 – Illustrating how you use, process, and protect existing employee data

GDPR requires that consent is ‘freely’ given by data subjects. This, ostensibly, means where there is perceived to be an imbalance of power between the consenting party and the organisation, that consent will be deemed invalid – and, given nature of employee-employer relationships, this would prove pointless in some cases.

For example, an employer is expected to hold and process employees’ names and bank account details, on a regular basis, as per the terms of their employment – and, accordingly, should not have to establish ‘consent’ for each process. The same goes for transactions that relate to the payment of statutory sick pay.

GDPR requires that consent is ‘freely’ given by data subjects
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In this area, then, it is thought that most organisations will use the lawful basis of “performance of contract”; in this case, the contract of employment. That said, there are some areas that will require your looking at. One is how you store and transport the personal information you hold on your existing and former employees, especially if you are using a third party for activities such as payrolling. Files containing the most sensitive data should be encrypted and it is important that all staff are informed of your procedures, and purpose, for holding their data.

You can find more information on the employee-employer element to the GDPR here

Files containing the most sensitive data should be encrypted and it is important that all staff are informed of your procedures, and purpose, for holding their data
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Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post 6 Months of GDPR, how are we doing? appeared first on Tech Trends.

Attention spans are short, and getting shorter. Consumers are bombarded with editorial, commercial and social messages through more devices and sources than ever, and overcoming their perceptual vigilance is the key to getting through.

By Kai Henniges, CEO of Video Intelligence

Context is the key to capturing and keeping a consumer’s attention, and by delivering content based on a consumer’s current behaviour, we see a far greater level of engagement. A recent study we conducted with entertainment site The Wrap saw dwell time increase by 33% on pages with contextual video content, while consumer perception of the platform also increased. Equally, a contextually placed commercial is far less likely to irritate a consumer, and spark negative feelings towards the publisher or brand whose product is featured.

Consumers used to exercising perceptual vigilance are automatically on the defensive when it comes to giving away their attention or affection
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We recently worked with a number of top academics from the fields of linguistics, neuroscience and marketing to identify the theories and practices required to capture a consumer’s attention. The unifying theme from each of our experts was the importance of contextual storytelling. If consumers are to give up precious moments in their busy schedule to listen to what advertisers have to say, we have to offer them something worthwhile in return.

Attention spans are short, and getting shorter
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Thousands of dollars are wasted as good video ads are delivered in the wrong context every day. An ad for a Burberry trench coat is out-of-place on a sports website, but on a fashion site it makes sense. And this use of context translates into engagement and subsequently, sales.

Publishers must learn to be creative when trying to capture consumers’ attention. We know that grabbing that attention doesn’t work – push notifications are often cited as a leading reason for users uninstalling apps and ad-blockers are more popular than ever, with 30% of internet users set to use one in 2018.

Thousands of dollars are wasted as good video ads are delivered in the wrong context every day
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Isabelle Szmigin, Professor of Marketing at Birmingham University, breaks down two key pieces of consumer behaviour that present a serious challenge to publishers and brands – multi-screening and perceptual vigilance. Multi-screening is a relatively new problem facing advertisers – it’s now completely normal for consumers to switch from one screen to another – whether to avoid advertising content or simply because they are distracted by what’s happening on another device:

“One of the problems advertisers face when consumers are using multiple platforms is that consumers are taking in less information from more sources,” Szmigin explains. “Publishers have to think about getting a story or piece of information across quickly and succinctly. We have to accept that consumers will be moving from their phone to their tablet, to a TV.”

Perceptual vigilance, meanwhile, has always been around – but an increase in branded content across multiple platforms means consumers use this more and more often nowadays. Essentially, perceptual vigilance is a subconscious mental state where our brain is ‘on guard’ to deal with non-essential content – often advertising. When adverts were delivered in predictable formats like four-minute breaks in television shows, we could easily predict when to switch this ‘vigilance’ on, but in the age of branded content and sponsored social posts, we’re constantly having to decide for ourselves if content should be taken at face value or treated as an advert.

Ad-blockers are more popular than ever, with 30% of internet users set to use one in 2018
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This presents a major problem when it comes to capturing a consumer’s attention: if they are used to exercising this perceptual vigilance, they’re automatically on the defensive when it comes to giving away their attention or affection, and are less likely to engage with advertising content.

Perceptual vigilance can also be used to tackle a method used by many modern brands and publishers: disruption. Szmigin explains how disruption can be both a positive and a negative for consumers: “Doing something that’s different or unexpected often triggers vigilance – consumers basically filter these messages out. Very often consumers get annoyed if their lives are disrupted. If they’re visiting a site and looking for something in particular, disruption affects their whole process, which is a problem for them.”

“On the other hand, finding something that disrupts us in a way that grabs our attention makes us think or makes us look at it can be a good thing. The trick to overcoming perceptual vigilance is finding disruption that consumers can relate to. Publishers have got to be aware of different age socio-economic groups who might be consuming their content. When we can find something that is specific and interesting to particular groups, we should aim to match these stories with relevant audiences.“

The key to ensuring we’re engaging consumers with content, rather than irritating them, is context. If we can present consumers with content we know they are likely to be interested in, we can use the element of surprise to our advantage. If we use disruptive techniques without considering context, we’re likely to irritate consumers and risk turning them off our brand, message or campaign completely.

Disruption can be both a positive and a negative for consumers
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With the advent of GDPR, advertisers have a real opportunity to heed this advice and focus on creating compelling, narrative-led content to engage consumers, rather than the hyperactive, programmatic approach that has helped create the attention-deficit economy we now have.

Now the reset button has been hit on consumer data, contextually targeted storytelling can help rebuild a degree of trust between advertisers and consumers. If we’re delivering messaging that takes its cues from a person’s actual interests and activities, we’re much more likely to deliver relevant content that is of interest to consumers, and in turn hold their attention long enough to convey our message.

With the advent of GDPR, advertisers have a real opportunity to focus on creating compelling, narrative-led content to engage consumers
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Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Expert View: Harnessing Disruption to Capture Attention appeared first on Tech Trends.