Happy New Year! According to the Lunar Calendar, 2023 is the year of the rabbit. It’s a symbol of longevity, calm, peace, intellect — and apparently, privacy. There are a large number of US state privacy regulations coming in the next year, each requiring “robust notice” and none of them clearly explaining what “robust notice” actually is, so it seems like a good time to dig into another confusing term.
The problem is that there are no comprehensive, blanket Federal privacy regulations. With no Federal-level regulations, every state must set its own, resulting in a kerfuffle of regulations that have various start dates in 2023. Some of these privacy regulations will have look-backs. At the same time, others are in effect but are not yet enforceable. Many of the regulations aren’t even final.
So where is the promised calm for 2023? At this point, the rabbit seems to be less a symbol of peace and intellect than an agent of chaos luring us into a weird and perilous privacy wonderland.
Well, personally, I find peace in the fact that all the privacy regulations have a common thread: the requirement that consumers have “robust notice” and “clear choices” about how we, in the advertising and marketing business, handle consumer data. And while, as we mentioned early, these regulations have not clearly defined “robust notice,” there are plenty of guiding adjectives to abide in crafting and updating a privacy policy.
I call these the PETS Choice principles.
Your robust notice to consumers should be:
Prominent
Place privacy notices and choices clearly and overtly.
Explicit
State the purposes for which you collect, control or process consumer data.
Transparent
Explain who is collecting data, if you are selling/sharing it, and how consumers may opt out.
Specific
The more specific you can be about the end use, means, purpose and substantive data collected, the better.
And after you have provided consumers of your site with PETS, give them a clear and easy to implement Choice to opt out of collecting, selling or sharing their data.
As marketers, we can and should be aligned with what consumers want. If only to find a little zen in 2023.
