The State of the Union: Privacy Laws’ Impact on the Sample Industry
The beginning of a new year not only brings celebratory toasts and resolutions but, in politics, preparation for the State of the Union address. Dating back to 1790, the SOTU serves as a “report card” of sorts, as the president gives his or her take on the state of the nation and outlines the president’s legislative goals for the year. In the spirit of this time-honored tradition, I thought it timely to present an overview of the major changes impacting the online sample industry. I’ll focus on two key pieces of legislation – GDPR and CCPA – that have disrupted the current state of the sample industry and changed the way data aggregators handle consumer data. Europe – Updates to GDPR Facebook has become the poster child for poor mishandling of consumer data. Under intense scrutiny, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has had to defend his company and its data collection practices in front of both U.S. congressional committees and the European Parliament. But Facebook isn’t alone. Many well-known companies collecting data on consumers, from cookies to search histories, emails to social posts, and everything in between, have been criticized by regulators and are subject to enhanced privacy protection laws enacted to protect consumers. The General Data Protection Regulation, or more commonly known as GDPR, is the EU’s response to European consumers’ growing concerns on how their data is being collected and used by companies. The law, created in 2016 and implemented in 2018, replaced privacy legislation enacted in 1995. While it took some time for regulators to figure out how to effectively enforce GDPR and for users and companies to understand their rights and compliance requirements, the regulations are in practice today. Sample companies are
