by

Ray Schultz , Columnist, February 8, 2018

As if the GDPR wasn’t enough to worry about, European marketers are bracing for the ePrivacy Regulation, which takes effect the same time as GDPR. There’s only one problem: It hasn’t been finalized. So, in contrast to the GDPR, marketers have to figure out what it will contain from the several drafts floating around.

Here’s what we know. The new regulation replaces the ePrivacy Directive that took effect in 2012. And it will reflect the techno-local changes that have occurred since then — for instance, those annoying pop-ups that inform you about cookies will disappear. But that may not be a good thing for programmatic advertisers.

“Policymakers have proposed that all consent requests should be centralized within the privacy settings of the software being used, rather than via pop-up banners on every website,” writes Catherine Armitage senior public affairs manager in charge of the World Federation of Advertisers’ Digital Governance Exchange, in

an article today in Marketing Week.

This means that “the first time a piece of software is downloaded, a user would have to choose whether or not to accept tracking on all websites,” Armitage explains.

Thus, the tracking of online habits will “fall into the hands of four companies, representing 90% of the browser market: Google (Chrome), Apple (Safari), Mozilla (Firefox) and Microsoft (Edge),” Armitage predicts.

The Drum adds that while the old directive covered “the typical communications channels of the time, eg emails,” this one adds “Over-the-Tops” such as Skype and social messaging services like WhatsApp. The objective, of course, is to force them to observe “stringent consent,” The Drum adds.

The good news? That there’s a soft opt-in for messages that offer similar products and services to customers to ones they’ve already bought, although there is a strict opt-out, The Drum notes. And there is still some ambiguity about B2B permissions.

Meanwhile, the UK Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has found in in a study that 76% of marketers are “somewhat prepared” for GDPR. Only 36% believe the GDPR will help their email programs, though, according to

PerformanceIn.

The DMA also reports that email marketing pulled £30.03 for every £1 spent on it in 2017. But marketers expect that figure to grow to £32.28 this year, despite the fact that less than a fifth feel competent in email testing, PerformanceIn continues. The lifetime value of an email address is estimated at £28.56.

It should be an interesting spring.

MediaPost.com: Search Marketing Daily

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