Tag: Consent

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Consent Management and Data Privacy in Customer Master Data Management (CMDM)

Introduction

Customer Master Data Management (CMDM), when undertaken as a business activity with or without a CMDM like the Pretectum CMDM presents many data management obligations to even the most average of organizations. New rules of data privacy, consumer mistrust, government action, competition for customers and the value of consumer data for businesses, consumers’ own views on data collection, regulations, tools for data control, security practices, and the integration of tooling with Consent Management Platforms (CMP) or inherent support thereof are all factors that require some consideration.

New Rules for Data Privacy

Data privacy has undergone a profound transformation in recent years. Gone are the days when businesses could amass and exploit customer data with impunity. The emergence of stringent data protection laws, in many countries and regions, has ushered in a new era around policies and procedures for customer data management. These regulations compel organizations to respect individuals’ privacy, requiring explicit consent for data collection, and imposing heavy fines for non-compliance. This shift underscores the importance of consent management in CMDM, as organizations must adapt to these new rules or face severe consequences.

Consumer trust is the foundation of any successful business relationship. However, in the wake of high-profile data breaches, surveillance scandals, and unethical data practices, consumers are increasingly wary of sharing their personal information. This mistrust poses a significant challenge for those engaged in CMDM, as obtaining and maintaining consent becomes more complex. Consumers demand transparency, control, and assurance that their data will be handled responsibly. Organizations must work diligently to regain and maintain this trust, emphasizing robust consent management practices to mitigate the impact of consumer mistrust on data privacy.

Governments worldwide are also taking proactive steps to protect citizen data privacy. The European Union’s GDPR serves as a global benchmark for data protection laws, while many countries are enacting similar legislation or strengthening existing regulations. This government action has far-reaching implications for CMDM, as organizations must navigate a complex landscape of diverse privacy requirements. Compliance with these regulations is not optional but mandatory, necessitating the integration of consent management into CMDM strategies to ensure alignment with evolving legal standards.

Competing for Customers

Organizations are all vying for customers’ attention and loyalty; personalized marketing strategies depend on comprehensive customer data, making data privacy a pivotal factor in the race for customer acquisition and retention. While data-driven insights are invaluable for crafting tailored offerings, organizations must strike a delicate balance between data utilization and respecting customer privacy. The CMDM layer becomes the battleground where organizations demonstrate commitment to data protection and making consent management a strategic imperative is essential to gain a competitive edge.

Data fuels customer engagement, informs strategic decisions, and enables the development of innovative products and services. In the CMDM layer, customer data takes center stage, driving operational efficiency and enhancing customer experiences. However, this data’s value is directly tied to the consent sought and obtained and the associated trust that consumers place in the organization. By using consent management effectively, businesses can unlock the full potential of consumer data while respecting privacy boundaries.

Consumer sentiments play an important role in shaping data privacy practices within the use practice of CMDM. Public awareness of data breaches, hacking incidents, and unauthorized data collection has elevated their awareness and potential concerns about data security. Consumers are increasingly vocal about their expectations regarding the protection of their data, and they demand accountability from organizations on data holding and handling. CMDM practice must incorporate these evolving consumer views into the management approach, placing a premium on consent management and robust security measures.

Tooling that Controls

As consumers become increasingly aware of their data rights, they expect tooling that empowers them to exert more control over their personal information. Consent management in the platforms, designed specifically to address this, is needed, providing individuals with mechanisms to grant or revoke consent, specify data usage preferences, and monitor how their data is being utilized. Integrating such tools into CMDM practices not only enhances compliance but also fosters trust and goodwill among consumers.

Security breaches can have devastating consequences, eroding consumer trust and tarnishing an organization’s reputation. The CMDM layer is a prime target for cyberattacks due to its wealth of sensitive customer data. Therefore, robust security practices are integral to CMDM’s success. The effective fusion of consent management with stringent security measures not only safeguards data but also reassures consumers that their information is in safe hands, bolstering trust and loyalty.

Combining a Customer Data Platform (CDP) with a Consent Management Platform to Manage Customer Data While Respecting Privacy Laws and Collecting User Consent

The integration of a Customer Data Platform (CDP) with a Consent Management Platform (CMP) represents a powerful synergy in the realm of CMDM. A CDP enables organizations to collect, unify, and activate customer data for various purposes, from marketing to customer service. Simultaneously, a CMP ensures that this data is collected and used in compliance with privacy laws, obtaining explicit consent and respecting individuals’ preferences.

This combination creates a dynamic CMDM framework that is not only data-driven but also privacy-conscious. By leveraging the strengths of both functionalities, organizations can deliver personalized experiences to customers while demonstrating a commitment to data privacy and consent management. Moreover, this integration streamlines the complex task of managing and tracking consent across multiple touchpoints, simplifying compliance efforts.

In the CMDM landscape, consent management and data privacy are integral components that cannot be ignored. The evolving rules of data privacy, consumer mistrust, government regulations, competitive pressures, and the immense value of consumer data necessitate a holistic approach to CMDM that has consent management at its core is most valuable.

By adopting robust consent management practices, and leveraging the power of a CMDM with consent management accompanied by stringent security controls and data quality measures, organizations can navigate the complex terrain of CMDM while respecting individuals’ privacy rights. In doing so, they can not only meet legal requirements but also build and maintain the trust of customers in an era where data privacy is paramount.

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The Significance of Consumer Data Verification, Consent Management, and Privacy Regulations: Safeguarding Consumer Privacy in the Digital Era

Consumer data has become a valuable asset for digitally-minded businesses across the globe. Companies are able to collect and analyze vast amounts of data in the pursuit of a better understanding of consumers and their behavior.

Through consumer insights, businesses are able to better tailor their products and services, and personalize marketing efforts. However, with the increasing concerns surrounding privacy and data protection, consumer data verification and obtaining explicit consent have emerged as crucial elements in maintaining consumer trust and complying with privacy regulations.

At Pretectum, we feel that managing your customer data with verification and consent aer equally important and here we try to explore the concept of consumer data verification, highlight the importance of consumer consent, and examine the significance of consent management in relation to consumer privacy and global privacy acts.

Consumer Data Verification: Ensuring Accuracy and Authenticity

Consumer data verification refers to the process of confirming the accuracy, reliability, and authenticity of consumer information collected by businesses.

With the abundance of data often already in place or available for collection, ensuring its quality and veracity is critical. Data verification involves various techniques such as cross-referencing information with trusted sources, validating identities, and detecting fraudulent or misleading data. By verifying consumer data, businesses can enhance the quality of their databases, improve decision-making processes, and mitigate potential risks associated with incorrect or unreliable information.

Global Privacy Acts and Consent

Privacy acts around the world, have significantly influenced data protection practices and highlighted the importance of consumer consent.

These acts set a precedent for privacy regulations worldwide, emphasizing the need for businesses to obtain explicit consent and respect consumer rights.

Implementing consent management not only ensures compliance with these regulations but also reflects an organization’s commitment to respecting privacy and building consumer trust.

The Importance of Consumer Consent

While data verification ensures the accuracy of consumer information, obtaining consumer consent is equally vital. Consumer consent refers to the explicit permission granted by individuals for businesses to collect, store, process, and use their personal data for specific purposes.

Consent is the cornerstone of data protection and privacy regulations, as it empowers individuals with control over their personal information. It ensures that businesses operate transparently and responsibly, respecting consumer privacy rights.

Consumer Consent and Privacy Regulations

In recent years, privacy regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) have been enacted to safeguard consumer privacy and provide individuals with greater control over their data.

These regulations emphasize the importance of obtaining informed consent from consumers before collecting and processing their personal information. Consent must be freely given, specific, and unambiguous, enabling individuals to make informed decisions about their data.

An example of Data Verification within the Pretectum CMDM

The Role of Consent Management

While many data-gathering solutions and systems overlook consent management, its inclusion is an important aspect for businesses to ensure compliance and strengthen consumer trust.

Consent management encompasses the processes and mechanisms through which businesses obtain, document, and manage consumer consent. It involves obtaining consent in a clear and concise manner, providing individuals with meaningful choices, and enabling them to withdraw or modify their consent easily.

By implementing robust consent management practices, like those offered by the Pretectum CMDM, businesses can demonstrate accountability, foster transparency, and build long-term relationships with consumers.

Verification requests can be batched or on demand for specific records

The Impact on Consumer Master Data

Consumer master data refers to the comprehensive and accurate information about individuals that businesses possess. When consent management is incorporated into consumer data gathering, it transforms the value and significance of consumer master data.

With verified and consented data, businesses can confidently engage with consumers, deliver personalized experiences, and create targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with individuals’ preferences and interests.

Moreover, businesses can proactively manage data breaches, comply with privacy regulations, and establish a reputation for responsible data handling.

Consumer data verification and obtaining consent are integral components of ethical data practices in the modern business landscape.

By verifying data for accuracy and authenticity, businesses can enhance the reliability of their databases.

Simultaneously, obtaining consumer consent is crucial for ensuring transparency, respecting privacy rights, and complying with privacy regulations. Consent Management like that offered by the Pretectum CMDM serves as a vital tool for businesses, enabling them to establish trust, foster transparency, and leverage accurate and consented consumer master data.

As privacy regulations continue to evolve globally, organizations must prioritize consumer consent and embrace robust consent management practices to safeguard consumer privacy and maintain a competitive edge.

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Getting consent with your Customer Master Data Management Platform (CMDM)

brown wooden i love you letter

If you’re thinking about your first-party data strategy then you are in the right place. The upcoming changes to third-party (3PD) cookie handling accompanied by ever-evolving privacy regulations mean that your organization needs to be privacy-ready!

The debate between your technology provider and your brand about the ethical use of data that is harvested from behaviour on their platforms and currently presented as second-party data (2PD) for you to use, is also under threat as ad platforms like Google and Facebook start talking about no longer making this available.

Marketers need to start thinking about practical strategies and marketing opportunities and first-party (1PD) data likely need to be where you will want to start.

New regulations and new device and platform developments now afford consumers the power to choose who can use their data and which data is available for use. When it comes to collecting data, we’ve definitely entered a more customer-focused era. What’s important now, is making it clear how your customers will actively benefit from sharing their data with your brand.

It is generally acknowledged that user-shared data and burgeoning privacy policies aimed at providing consumer clarity, give consumers control and transparency over their data and its use, in the hands of organizations that they interact with.

First-party data is the information that is collected from your customers and prospects during direct interactions with your business. This could be coming from websites, apps, and even in-store, it can also come over the phone or via paper form transcription.

We’re not talking transactional data here (though that could be a focus), we’re talking about the master data that relates to the identifiable characteristics of the customer.

Every touchpoint your customer has with your business presents itself as an opportunity for you to learn more about them so you can build a stronger relationship and personalize the next experience that the customer has with your brand.

Pretectum feels that’s why it’s important that you consider a CMDM as part of the arsenal of tools that you could use to manage the customer master data, and the consent to manage the customer’s master data.

Some history

It’s worth considering how we landed where we are today. One key milestone in this wresting of the power from faceless and anonymous data providers was the European implementation of the GDPR back in 2018.

In different markets, it has had different implications, but most importantly, if you’re a business doing business in Europe with European customer data, you have to comply or risk penalties.

When combined with the CAN-SPAM Act in relation to unwanted Commercial Electronic Mail – it requires the FCC to issue rules with regard to commercial e-mail and some text messages sent to wireless devices such as cell phones—not email in general; and the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) is targeted at protecting consumers and businesses from the misuse of digital technology, including spam and other electronic threats.

Canadian and US retailers specifically, need to adopt transparency over how they gather and compile customer and prospect data for North Americans.

Alternative ways to think

At face value, all this regulation, the crumbling of the cookie, and the potential disappearance of third and second-party data providers altogether look bad for marketing teams. In fact, it looks bad for all business areas and organizations that depended on these sources to sell, upsell and cross-sell. A full analysis of the yield from spray and pray 2PD and 3PD providers though, might show that the returns of leveraging this data were marginal despite the promises of the data providers.

Where the real treasure lies, is most likely in the data that you already have; and the data that your customers are willingly prepared to give you. Moving to a different model where you make use of first-party and zero-party data (0PD)

Clean and compliant 1PD and 0PD have many benefits for your organization, although it does come with the burden of setting up ways to gather the data and manage it. This is where we think the Pretectum CMDM can be of help.

Some of the benefits include improved customer and prospect targeting. A better understanding of the customer lifetime value (CLV); a stronger understanding of the prospective customer’s intentions and their relative position in the prospecting and opportunity funnel; an overall better tuned and optimizable customer experience with personalization and of course a better understanding of marketing ROI and campaign effectiveness.

Organizations have been trying to forge closer and stronger relationships with customers since the commercialization of the Internet and general availability of CRM, ERP, CDP and POS systems began and these changes to how we collect and leverage audience, prospect, and customer data may be just what the data doctor ordered!.

Moving customer data quality to the front of the line

Before these regulations were introduced, buying 2PD and 3PD was cheap enough and seemingly cost-effective but the downside was the questionable quality of the data.

Bad data would not only result in sales and marketing campaign failure, it potentially also ruined brand reputation with people receiving unwanted messaging and communication.

Implementing a CMDM like Pretectum’s together with your 1PD and 0PD strategy means you always have your pulse on the quality of the data that you gather, and you’re gathering it with a legitimate and approved reason.

Data Quality
Data Quality Overview in the Platform

Driving towards minimally viable data

Although data storage costs are minuscule these days, even at scale, the reality is that many businesses have more data than they know what to do with and a great deal of data is held that will never be leveraged for any meaningful business purpose.

This data duplication, proliferation and burden are improved with platforms like the Pretectum CMDM as it identifies the duplicative data and drives your business operations towards the consolidation of all the data that you have about customers, into a single reference repository that will drive efficiency and effectiveness.

When you have a data governance component that manages the mastery of the customer data record you can now apply more thoughtfulness to that very data’s collection, evolution and distribution. Your customer master data, with the 0PD approach, reveal to your audiences, what you know and what they have shared and empowers your associates to elevate the depth and quality of the customer-partner conversation.

Maintaining just the right amount of data without duplicates, with completeness, currency and consent, moves your business to a model where you have viable data for engaging with the customer but just the right amount without leaving the customer feeling their privacy has been violated.

Keeping it real

When you have an active approach to 0PD you can start providing customers with provable benefits. you’ve given them that essential control over what they share and what you can do with it. You’re allowing them to adjust their privacy settings as their relationship with your business flexes.

You’re doing customer master data management in an intuitive, transparent and straightforward way with your Prectectum CMDM maintaining the change history in the background as you adjust the preferences via APIs using your mobile apps, websites and in-store or POS applications.

All this drives the promotion of consumer privacy and demonstrates robust customer master data stewardship. Internally, this motivates your own people, assisting them in having the confidence to build longer, more meaningful relationships with customers and your customers with your brand.

Contact us to learn more about how we can help