Data collection in a world that has heavily transitioned to an online setting is one of the most vital business tools available to companies to grow their marketing base and revenue. Cookies and tags are just a couple of the components of online tracking, giving websites the ability to track and store information about users including which products they purchase, which pages they view, and how they accessed the site.
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Because of how versatile and potentially invasive these practices may be towards users and their personal information, there are many regulations that have been put in place to ensure the privacy of consumers.
Europe, the United States, and many other countries have implemented specific laws to protect online users from invasive data collecting. ePrivacy Directive and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe, and state-specific legislation in the United States both work similarly to provide users with rights and powers of where, how, when, and with whom their personal data and information is shared.
With these strict regulations, it is inevitable that businesses face many challenges when attempting to collect and utilize sufficient data to better their practices. If too many users refuse consent, businesses struggle to truly understand their user population and therefore make accurate optimizations.
In addition, there are large fines associated with non-compliance with these regulations as a consequence for violating consumer privacy. Finally, businesses face challenges because gathering consent from each user can be tedious, which leads to a smaller proportion of consenting users willingly sharing their information.
There is a new approach to combating these challenges, focusing on cookieless data collection technologies, and the importance of prompting a registration to encourage the sharing of data willingly. If businesses and marketers can move towards these types of data collection methods, not only can they better comply with online privacy laws, but can also get the most out of their data and analytics.
The power of data collection is beneficial to companies across the globe, especially when it is gathered and utilized in an ethical way.
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