Mind the Data Privacy Gap
Where organisational theory is concerned, we're fully aware that we are working in a complex and unstable industry, that
Becoming a Centre of Excellence has always been Ve Interactive’s business objective. It involves a lot of action verbs on a daily basis: lots of thinking and doing. Where organisational theory is concerned, we’re fully aware that we are working in a complex and unstable industry, that moves fast, and so therefore we’ve built a unique strategy and organisation.
In the last 18 months we took a paradigm shift, by introducing a multi-dimensional suite of software products and services. They are all designed to complement each another in supporting the goal of ‘total online efficiency’ for our online retailers, of which shopping cart abandonment happens to be just one single element. (See the Veriodic Table).
By doing this, we aligned the commercial objectives of our e-commerce clients with our technology architecture, to better help them make pedigree decisions and maximise their online conversions. Having woken up the industry to the issue of abandonment, this approach was both an innovation initiative and a technology project. And it was a culture shock for an industry only in its infancy anyway.
Excellence to us however, also means respecting local laws governing consumer protection and data privacy across all the countries that we work in. Ve actively stays current with the continuing negotiations of the new European Data Protection Regulation, which is designed to introduce a harmonised data protection law across Europe, and to account for changes in technology since the last directive was introduced in 1995.
In other words, it’s about respecting the privacy rights of our clients’ customers and we believe that no online brand should ever be naively exposed to testing the limits of these regulations in the name of profit.
We all have the right to the protection of our personal data, data revolution époque or not. To quote Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, “the barriers to entry for companies being low and the capacity for innovation and creativity almost unlimited,” means that data handling companies have a responsibility to “safeguard privacy and build consumer trust” and not to abuse sophisticated technologies. And only this way will the economy and consumers be able to benefit from fantastic opportunities created by new products and services born out of data.
And those that don’t? Well if you’ve been following the news recently, you will be aware of negative fallout regarding the data protection authorities of various EU countries which are now launching joint action against Google for alleged breaches of data protection laws. But the law doesn’t just apply to corporate behemoths. Ignorance of it is not an excuse and in today’s fast moving, connected world, the gap between what a brand says and what the brand does is evaporating rapidly.