With the headlines full of stories about how unprepared marketers are for GDPR, new research from Databoxer gets to the crux of what British consumers hate people doing without getting permission first — whether it’s brands or even friends, family and strangers.
The new EU regulation states that brands will need permission from consumers to market to them, which should hopefully mean a reduction in cold calls, which 67% of us object to, and unwanted marketing emails, which annoy 28% of us.
It seems, however, that most consumers wouldn’t mind if the law extended to friends and family as well — asking for permission for things is just as important as our right to privacy. In the digital world, despite our addiction to social posting, almost a third (29%) of us don’t like people sharing our photos on social media without them checking it’s OK first.
In the real world, half of British consumers get most annoyed by friends sharing secrets and stories without asking, and 29% of people take umbrage to friends popping round unannounced. And even in the sharing economy, 28% of people definitely don’t want friends borrowing possessions without consent either.
When it comes to strangers, bad manners and poor queuing etiquette annoy us as much as those cold calls and unwanted marketing emails from brands. 66% of people hate strangers pushing into a queue without permission and 63% of us get riled at the absence of manners.
Tim Haynes, co-founder of Databoxer, which commissioned the research, said: “The advent of GDPR and brands having to take data privacy and consent more seriously is a timely reminder to us all about basic manners. If brands and marketers just acted with thought and common courtesy, they wouldn’t be having such a hard time dealing with these issues now.
“Simply remember, it’s polite to ask first and not take liberties with our data, our secrets or our stuff!”