Data privacy is a relatively new concept in digital marketing, but it is quickly gaining traction. Customer protection and good stewardship have been brought to the forefront with recent breaches and misuse of information.

What can you do as a digital marketer?

Your job as a digital marketing consultant and professional no longer merely entails designing insight-driven, creative campaigns. It also means that you’ll need to put specific controls on collecting, using, and storing your customers’ information.

Data privacy and security necessitate the development of policies and procedures that ensure:

• Data acquisition that is legal and ethical
• How data is gathered and shared with third parties
• Regulations and rules governing data and information handling

For example, in Australia, there is The Privacy Act 1998, which includes the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). It is the principal data protection legislation.

What can customers do to protect themselves?

Users can now exchange information in a matter of seconds with the internet. However, the biggest concern with this rapid data flow, is that it’s not safe.

According to research, 83 percent of internet users worldwide are concerned about their privacy and demand responsibility.

And a rising number of consumers have made efforts to minimize data collecting by deleting cookies, opting out, and building separate personal and professional personas by creating emails used just for shopping.

Tips on how businesses can protect customer data privacy

You should restrict access.

Not every member of your marketing team requires access to all the information you’ve gathered. Also, your employees are unlikely to require the same amount of access to the technologies they use.

By restricting access, your company will have fewer points of vulnerability. Each entry point — such as when someone physically logs into an analytics application, is a vulnerability.

Internal data abuse is also less likely when you have less staff with access to your clients data.

Collecting of data should be optional.

While forms help generate leads and collect as much relevant data as possible, you shou