Marketers weak points in data protection
Marketing departments and outsourced email service providers could be the weak points in protecting personal information, according to findings in a survey by the Ponemon Institute, supported by Strongmail. It found that 61 per cent of marketers had experienced a data breach, compared to 43 per cent of data protection professionals, while 77 per cent of those marketers who had lost personal data also outsourced their email marketing.
The disparity may result from weaker perceptions of the importance of data protection among marketers and a stronger belief that rules get in the way. Asked whether consumer marketing programmes violated individual's privacy rights, 53 per cent of marketers were unsure (compared to 66 per cent of data protection professionals who strongly agreed or agreed that they did not).
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Equally, 45 per cent of marketers said it was not important or irrelevant that customers trusted their organisation's privacy commitments. The same proportion said that these requirements make it more difficult for them to market to present and potential customers.
Based on a survey among 499 marketers and 403 data protection professionals in the UK, the research suggests that internal compliance programmes may be undermined by the attitude of marketing departments and by ESPs.
Paul Bates, managing director of StrongMail UK, which provides in-house email broadcasting software, says/ "Businesses have a moral, ethical obligation to keep private, personal customer data safe and secure. They should not be handing it out to third parties in the hope of making a fast buck. If they choose to do this, and then lose customer data, then they should at least be obliged to admit it."
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