Why digital marketers need to comply with cookie regulations to avoid their campaigns being disrupted

Protecting customer data

In addition to the Consumer Contracts Regulations, a key consideration for online retail is the capture and storage of personal and financial data. Advertising cookies play a crucial role in many types of digital marketing strategies and can create tailored user experiences by tracking interactions with ads, websites, and content.

Why digital marketers need to comply with cookie regulations to avoid their campaigns being disrupted

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has again warned organisations that they must make their advertising cookies compliant with data protection rules if they want to avoid enforcement action. 

The warning, which was issued at the end of January, follows a campaign launched by the ICO last November and various other initiatives undertaken by the ICO and regulators in the EU in recent years.

Why are these regulations so important for digital marketers?

Cookies and similar technologies that process personal data are caught by data protection laws in both the UK and EU. Non-compliance with these regulations can result in eye-watering fines such as the EURO 150 million fine imposed on the French regulator (CNIL) at the end of 2021.

Often overlooked, however, are the regulatory powers that can also be used to suspend the processing of personal data under these laws. Cookies often play a central role in digital marketing strategies focussed on hyper-personalisation through the application of data analytics and AI.

The digital ecosystem is complicated and constantly evolving. So, it is crucial that organisations avoid being forced to suspend or unravel their data processing by the regulator. Or, worse still, they are subjected to heavy fines.

What should they do?

The good news is that it is relatively straightforward to produce compliant Cookies policies and deal with the other steps necessary. What is more, now is also a great time for many organisations to take a deeper dive into understanding their data flows and the technology they use as they start to grapple with AI. These basic data mapping activities are also a basic component of the governance needed to manage AI risks.

Get in touch

We offer a range of solutions to help digital marketing teams. This ranges from basic cookies notices and policies that we can produce quickly and simply, to more sophisticated support which we can tailor to provide you with robust governance frameworks and playbooks that you can then use to support your delivery of complex and ambitious data analytics projects at pace.