How can you use consent management for business purposes? Let’s find out in this article!
With non-compliance fines rising, customers are becoming more concerned about their personal data than ever. Whether it’s for your customer data platform or another tool, it’s always important to have the proper consent management plan set up that is easy for your customers to understand and comply with regulations and laws.
Discussions regarding consent management have rapidly evolved over the years, and how to maintain compliance regulations as landscapes change. Sometimes, it can be challenging to understand what data you collect and how you should store it.
What is consent management?
So, let’s dive deeper into understanding consent management. First, it informs users how your businesses collect and use data, which allows them to refuse or consent to that type of usage. This may comprise a set of policies, a process, or even a system that generally includes more than one top practice. A consent management framework is a key to ensuring compliance with data privacy laws such as GDPR and CCPA. These laws were passed only a few years ago, so the way we process data has definitely changed.
Why is consent management important for your business?
Consent management is important for a business in several ways; here are some of the main reasons:
Consumers want control of their data and privacy
Some of the most important parts of consent management are allowing consumers the control they want. Privacy and internet access are considered to be fundamental human rights. While many privacy rights were established before data privacy laws, consumers increasingly demand transparency in online activities.
Public trust is built
The size of data breaches might be a vast concern for people because it will decrease people’s trust in protecting sensitive data. Nevertheless, even customers who aren’t impacted by any security breaches can psychologically affect them. In fact, a report by Mckinsey claimed that nearly 90% of customers would stop doing business with a company that uses their data unauthorized.
Noncompliance
No company can get away without complying with privacy regulations, and larger corporations have continuously been an offender of privacy laws. The GDPR and CCPA are the strictest data privacy laws and have given large fines to companies that fail to comply. This is to ensure consumers are protected and don’t face unnecessary issues.
How can you use consent management, and why should you use it?
Lawfully speaking, consent management is a primary basis for processing consumer data. The best way to process consumer data in several situations is to maintain consent. However, this shouldn’t be an option, and according to the GDPR, there are five other methods you can use to process consumer data:
- Public task performance: Authorities that perform duties daily based on their job descriptions don’t need to comply with consent management standards since they carry out tasks based on public interest and official authority. However, this doesn’t apply to you if you aren’t working for a public institution.
- Legal obligation: Occurs when you process data that is legally acceptable. A great example here would be criminal records.
- Vital interest: If processing customer data is a fundamental act of someone, the processing is fundamentally monitored under the GDPR. However, this doesn’t apply to an everyday e-commerce business.
- Contract performance: In case your business is providing good services to your customers,
- Legitimate interest: Involves when you may process customer data without any valid reason. Nevertheless, it’s for legal interpretation and has already undergone several debates.
However, remember that not all these bases apply to all online stores. In short, you need to obtain consent to be allowed to process customers’ data legally.
Also read: Security Consultant | 12 best career options!
Consider using consent management platforms
A consent management platform (CMP) is an excellent tool for collecting and managing user consent and passing down important information to third-party vendors. In addition, CMPs can automate consent processes by gaining permission to use cookies and track data, allowing users to update preferences much more easily.
CMPs can comply with changing data privacy laws, helping business owners comply with different data privacy regulations. Nevertheless, they can also show easy-to-understand cookies and provide users with further information on how data is collected and used, building trust over time, especially when a user opens a web page for the first time. However, that isn’t the end. A CMP has many other benefits associated with it, and some of them are:
- Build trust with potential and regular customers: When customers see that companies want the best for them, they’ll try to create positive experiences that they’ll share with their friends and family members.
- Quick handling of DSARs: The GDPR can provide people with the right to access, and the CCPA provides similar rights, too, allowing EU residents to find out more about what an organization wants to know about them when submitting requests. Automated workflows can help companies manage DSARs.
- Saving time and resources: A CMP can significantly help users save time and resources since it automates the consent process and stays updated with any regulation changes. Nevertheless, no matter where you do business, it still helps you in several ways.
- Streamlining operations: Companies create central repositories for compliant consent responses they can use across several departments and in the company.
Wrapping it all up
That’s about it for this article. This was everything on how you can use consent management for your business. Despite its importance in business, many business owners still don’t have much information on it. That’s why we hope this article informed you well enough and changed your mind about consent management.
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