New privacy laws could mean opt-outs in all direct marketing and $1.1m fines for rule breakers
ADMA CEO Jodie Sangster
How marketers use data to target new and existing customers is to get tougher if new laws are passed, industry body ADMA has claimed.
Among the new rules would be mandatory opt-outs in all direct marketing – including social media – and heavy fines of $1.1m for those who flout the rules, the marketing body says.
But the Senate has recommended that a proposal to ban direct marketing altogether be dropped, as well as the need to deal with customers anonymously or enabling them to use a pseudonym.
It seems every 4-5 years populist proposals along these lines get put up only to be – thankfully – knocked down.
The combination of technology advancements and greater client understanding of effective ways to use data to better market to consumers means that this ‘initiative’ should be taken off the table permanently.
Of course, consumers must be protected from spammers and unscrupulous data miners but what’s proposed would be a major retrograde step.
I still get way too many unwanted phone calls from callers of ‘overseas accent appearance’ wanting to talk to ‘the owner of the business’. I guess those clowns don’t have to obey our laws? Another benefit of overseas call centres.