After a two-year-long transition period, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was finally implemented two weeks ago. GDPR now enforces and permanently changes the way you, as a business, collect, store and use customer data.

Most online advertising companies collect huge amounts of user data and while some followed best practice, many didn’t. They’ve been known to exchange and sell user data to third parties, which may seem unethical but a ‘necessary evil’ as this data helps target ads to the right users at the right time and place. While this does maximise return on investment (ROI) for publishers and advertisers, it comes at the cost of user privacy.

Some of us had a good idea of what GDPR could mean for subscription rates but we did not expect this. Continue reading →