CCPA

The California Consumer Privacy Act took effect on Jan 1, 2020. The CCPA grants California consumers the right to know what personal information is collected, used, shared or sold; the right to delete personal information held by businesses and their respective service providers; the right to opt-out of the sale of personal information; and the right to non-discrimination when a consumer exercises a privacy right under CCPA. But what does this mean for marketers? The last many years we’ve seen data used in extremely target ways. They are effective, contextual, and for the most part, secretive. The average consumer doesn’t know how much of their data is being collected or sold. Now that California’s state law gives some of that power back to the consumer, how will marketers cope? Will we see a trend back to anonymity? I don’t think we can be as naive as to think that the old “spray and pray” method of marketing will make a resurgence. Nor, do some people want that. But I do hope that those who are creeped out that a brand is following their every move to get them to purchase XYZ product will get to breath a sigh of relief knowing that they are not being as followed -- or rather, they have a choice in how much they are being followed. The group that I think will be most affected by this change are not my peers, but the very young and very elderly. And hopefully, this is just the beginning. With new constraints, innovation can be born. I’m interested to see what new trend of marketing will come out of these new rules. Maybe contextual content will not go away (it won’t), but at least there will be a new level of transparency. Perhaps, that will lead to a more authentic relationship between brand and consumer. And at the end of the day, isn’t that what all good marketers want to achieve: relevant content to for the right audience to foster lifelong brand loyalty?