Insider Blog
April 08, 2021
Insider achieves ePrivacyseal
At Insider we’re excited and proud to announce that the Insider Growth Management Platform (GMP) has been awarded the ePrivacyseal of approval for data protection by ePrivacy GmbH. The seal represents a certification based on European data protection legislation and covers the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for digital products.
ePrivacy GmbH advises and supports companies in the digital economy with all aspects and challenges of data protection. It certifies companies and products with the ePrivacyseal following extensive technical and legal review as well as an in-depth audit of a company’s online and mobile products. Its criteria for certification are continuously adapted to the interpretation of the GDPR and other data protection laws to ensure secure and visible compliance.
Data protection has become essential for digital marketers as cybersecurity threats continue to trend upward. In the past decade, just in the US, the number of data breaches has accelerated from 662 in 2010 to over 1,000 by 2020. Data leaks — exposures resulting from no deliberate attack — remain an issue, too. More than 150 million records were exposed in the U.S. in 2020.1 These breaches and exposures come at high costs around the world. According to research from IBM, the global average cost of a data breach is over $3.8 million.2
Data protection vulnerabilities and lapses expose businesses to a range of threats, from ransomware and malware attacks to insider threats and more. There can be high costs in terms of legal action. Home Depot, for instance, agreed to pay a $17.5 million settlement after a malware infection affected millions of shoppers.3 Damage to brand reputation, loss of intellectual property, and perhaps most important, erosion and loss of customer trust are also at stake.
These breaches and incidents are making consumers wary, too. Forbes reports that 69% of them are concerned about how personal data is collected on mobile apps.4 They’ve seen the parade of sensational headlines. In 2017, a data breach at credit bureau Equifax exposed the information of about 147.9 million consumers.5 In 2020, it was reported that the profile details of 267 million Facebook users were stolen and then sold on the dark web.6 Consumers know they don’t really know who has their data, what data they might have, or what they intend to do with it.
The consequences and concerns for businesses and consumers make it imperative for digital marketers to adhere stringently to GDPR. Whether it be requiring consent for data access, anonymizing data to protect privacy, reporting data breach notifications, or safely handling data as it crosses borders, any question about a marketer’s compliance will be judged by the marketplace or regulatory authorities, and quite possibly both.
With its ePrivacyseal, Insider is positioned to develop its products in ways that ensure their compliance with currently applicable legislation. In other words: data protection by design. The criteria and qualifications of the ePrivacyseal process bring our product development in line with the GDPR to deliver privacy protection compliance from inception to activation. Customers can be assured that the existing platform and delivery of future innovations will have privacy and protection built into their design, delivery, and operation.
Insider has a special responsibility when it comes to data protection. We commit to not only helping protect our customers’ data — but the data of our customers’ customers, too.
Insider’s GMP can integrate with first-party and third-party data sources to deliver a unified customer database. Digital marketers across industries can choose to enrich data sets by integrating Insider’s GMP to their customer relationship management systems, data management platforms, and offline channels to deliver hyper-relevant recommendations across marketing channels.
This level of integration and interoperability with your information and, ultimately, that of your customers requires that we take our commitment to data protection and GDPR exceptionally seriously.
We set out to become one of the first growth management platforms to achieve the ePrivacyseal and believe its award demonstrates that we understand how much is at stake. Since the EU GDPR regulations took effect in May of 2018, fines of up to €20 million ($23.5 million) or 4% of your global turnover can be levied.7 British Airways, for example, was fined £183.39 million ($215 million) in 2019 for failure to comply with the GDPR.8 Even you, personally, could be held liable for noncompliance.
We believe becoming one of the first GMPs to achieve an ePrivacyseal demonstrates how committed we are to data protection and compliance with the GDPR — for your data, your customers’ data, and yourself.
It doesn’t end here. In fact, it’s really just the beginning. One of the things we learned in achieving the ePrivacyseal is that data privacy and protection is an evolving and often rapidly changing game. We know that cybercriminals and attackers will continue to come up with new ways to exploit data, cause harm, and wreak havoc. Our ePrivacyseal is an important step in our journey to continually protect data associated with our products, our customers’ and their customers’ data, and digital markets around the world.
