15 Mind-Blowing Stats About GDPR

Where exactly are we as an industry in terms of GDPR compliance? And how do consumers feel about the new regulations?

15 Mind-Blowing Stats About GDPR

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, which went into effect May 25, is top-of-mind for all marketers today–and rightfully so. Industry analysts say that in the long-run the new regulation will be a big opportunity for companies to create business value by increasing trust between organizations and the consumers they service.

But where exactly are we as an industry in terms of GDPR compliance? And how do consumers feel about the new regulations? Those questions, and more, are answered via the compilation of stats below.

  1. Fifty-nine percent of brand respondents and 40% of agency respondents said that their organizations have either appointed or are planning to appoint a data protection officer. (Source: Econsultancy)
  2. Sixty percent of respondents said GDPR has significantly changed their organizations’ workflows for collecting, using, and protecting personal information. (Source: McDermott, Will & Emery)
  3. Marketers who were asked about their top three priorities ahead of the legislation’s enforcement cited reviewing their consent mechanisms for collecting and processing data (86% of brand marketers and 77% of agency-side respondents). (Source: Econsultancy)
  4. Seventeen percent of respondents plan to introduce a new solution to manage consent. (Source: Deloitte)
  5. Sixty-one percent of respondents said they believe that GDPR has its benefits beyond just implementation. Of those, 21% expect significant benefits, including competitive advantage, improved reputation, and business enablement. (Source: Deloitte)
  6. Thirty-five percent of organizations said they have a data breach reporting process that is aligned to GDPR readiness. (Source: Deloitte)
  7. A majority (56%) expect their organization’s data governance budget to increase to deal with GDPR challenges. (Source: Crowd Research Partners)
  8. As for those challenges, marketers said the primary ones are lack of expert staff (43%), closely followed by lack of budget (40%) and a limited understanding of GDPR regulations (31%). (Source: Crowd Research Partners)
  9. Seventy-one percent of marketers said they believe that lack of compliance could have a detrimental impact on their companies’ ability to conduct business globally. (Source: McDermott, Will & Emery)
  10. Sixty percent of CMOs and senior-level marketers believe that GDPR will make it harder to build a direct relationship with the consumer, with CMOs from financial services industry (73%) most concerned. (Source: Dentsu Aegis Network)
  11. By the end of 2018, the percentage of survey respondents expecting to be GDPR-compliant (including those companies already compliant) will be 76% EU, 76% U.K., and 68% U.S. Ninety-three percent expect to be fully compliant by the end of 2019. (Source: TrustArc)
  12. Nearly half (48%) of U.K. adults expressed plans to activate new rights over their personal data as a result of GDPR. (Source: Information Age)
  13. Fifty-eight percent of U.K. consumers said they worry that a company might sell their personal information to other companies. (Source: RealWire)
  14. Forty-three percent of U.K. consumers said they want companies that don’t follow data protection rules to pay bigger fines. (Source: RealWire)
  15. Sixty-nine percent of American consumers surveyed would like to see privacy laws like GDPR enacted in the U.S. When asked which of the GDPR provisions they’d most like to see enacted, 38% responded with the ability to control how their data is used while 39% favored the “right to be forgotten” rule. (Source: Janrain)