How Will the EU’s FB User Privacy Regulations Effect Social Media Campaigns

What do the EU regulations say?

After the wake of several data manipulations and data collection of users without their consent as well as the Cambridge Analytica scandal coming into light, the EU union has framed General Data Privacy Rules; Facebook will now start following all the rules dictated under the GDPR.

In short, GDPR says the following:

• Companies must elaborately express the collection of private data and how they plan on using it. No lengthy disclaimers or forcing people to click yes and move on. They have to be elaborate, brisk and deliver the exact details of how and why the data is collected and used.
• You must be informed whenever your data is collected, and your data can be collected in only a few cases like a job application, loan request or uses as such. Also, if your doctor needs your private data or if your private data needs to be processed by the government for purposes like taxation etc., only then is it acceptable to collect your private data. If your private data is collected for any other purpose, you must be informed about it.
• Apart from the above, your data must be strictly used for legitimate purposes, and there must not be excessive requests for personal data. The part of your private data that identifies you as a certain individual should not be kept for over an extended period if the need for the data is fulfilled.
• You must always be given the provision to change, edit or erase incorrect details about yourself. At the same time, it must be rigorously protected against mishaps like loss, alternation, unintended disclosures and either lawful or unlawful and accidental destruction.

Impact of the EU’s GDPR on Facebook:

Facebook will start putting the GDPR into implementation in the last week of May. It will start adding more options to control your privacy and will start explaining how it plans on using your day. This will all take place from 25th of May. Previously, facial recognition by Facebook wasn’t implemented in Europe. However, from now on, people can opt it; also, Facebook will ask all the EU users to agree to the new privacy control rules and settings formally.

From now on, Facebook will start explicitly publicising the already existent settings that most are unaware of. Facebook has few settings in the advertisement section wherein you can opt out of targeted ads and if or whether they’d be interested in seeing ads based on their interests or not. Mark Zuckerberg has also announced that he will make these privacy standards applicable to everyone across the world. In general, Facebook collects your data and uses it for advertisement in three major ways. One, it is advertising by targeting your interests that you publicly acknowledge under “Your Interests.” Two, it makes use of your browsing history to show you all the relevant advertisements as well. Facebook uses software to track your browsing activity beyond Facebook as well. Three, it also targets you with advertisements on various other websites as well.

With the new regulations coming into effect, Facebook will now give its users the ability to disable advertising based on browsing history and interests.

How will all these changes affect the Social Media Campaigns?

• When people become aware of the options that’ll help them reduce the amount of targeting that takes place, the campaigns that are directed at a particular niche of people might take a hit.
• Campaigns aimed at a very highly specific group of people might not be as much done as it was in the past. At the same time, your campaign effectiveness also might increase in few cases as people who like a specific interest and haven’t removed it from their profile might be targeted, in that way, there will be lesser wasted revenue spent in targeting to a crowd that is disinterested in a particular segment or category.
• When people can turn off advertising and reduce the overall targeting that happens through the personal data of users, the campaigns will have a lesser amount of people to target to. Again, this will apply to campaigns depend on the nitty-gritty of them. If your campaign has a broad range of people to target based on generic descriptions and not highly specific details, it must not be troublesome.
• Though the amount of advertising might not drastically decrease as Facebook primarily makes money from advertising, the campaigners might now need to develop social media campaigns that are of better quality and superior content to attract the user’s attention. With data collection and targeted advertising coming under bad light, there is a chance that people share a widespread negative attitude towards advertisements in social media. Hence, the campaigners have to design the campaigns in a very captivating manner.

On the whole, the number of benefits that a business could reap out of Social Media Campaigns might have a slight decrease due to these stringent laws.

About the Author:

In addition to being the editor at designrfix and writing about tech, web and graphic design among other subjects, I love “unplug” and be outdoors hiking and enjoying nature. If you can’t reach me, it’s probably because where I am at doesn’t have cell phone reception.