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It’s been common practice for businesses to sell their consumers’ personal information like age, gender, likes, hobbies, where they study, etc. without their consent to marketers. In turn, marketers use this information to show consumers targeted ads. While this sounds harmless, the fact that an individual’s personal information is being passed around like a commodity is the reason why privacy laws such as the CCPA and GDPR have come into effect.
The GDPR has made it mandatory for organizations to ask consumers for consent before selling any part of their personal information. On the other hand, the CCPA requires organizations to provide its consumers the option to object to the sale of their personal data by displaying a button stating “Do Not Sell my Personal Information”.
These laws need to be followed strictly and failure to do so can result in drastic repercussions, as happened with the Cambridge Analytica incident where 50 million Facebook accounts were used for psychological profiling to assist Donald Trump in the 2016 elections. This was done without the consumers being aware and was a massive breach of consent by Facebook. Facebook was said to pay a fine of $633,000 for this breach.
Therefore, setting up a robust consent management system is empirical for any organization intending to process its consumers’ data. However, it’s not as easy as it sounds. This article will talk about why a consent management platform is important and how the adoption of an efficient CMP can prepare any business for compliance with existing and upcoming data privacy regulations.
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Before we move on, let’s first look at how leading privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA define consent management.
Under the GDPR, consent is one of the lawful basis of data processing. Article 7 states that “Consent must be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous”. This requires that an individual’s consent must be given voluntarily without any pressure or influence that could affect his or her choice. Moreover, an individual must have the ability to withdraw his/her consent at any time, without any detriment. Such withdrawal of consent must be as easy as giving consent.
The law under the CCPA is more commonly known as the right to opt-out which states that “Consumers have the right—at any time—to direct businesses that sell personal information about the consumer to third parties to stop this sale”. However, organizations must provide the option to opt-out of the sale of personal data to its customers by displaying a button stating “Do Not Sell my Personal Information”. This falls under section 1798.120 of the CCPA. The CCPA also requires businesses to record an opt-in consent from minor consumers and consumers who allow the collection, processing and sale of their data in return for a financial incentive.
Websites use a consent management platform – or “CMP” – to obtain users' consent to process their personal data, which is obtained through cookies and trackers on the domain. Managing director of It Works Media, Steve Pritchard, explained how a consent management platform works in the case of a corporate website. “A CMP is used to inform visitors about the types of data they’ll collect and what they will use it for. They store visitor consent data and deal with visitors’ requests to make alterations about the data the website has collected about them, including requests to access and erase this data. It is a necessary platform for websites to meet EU regulations for data collection”.
The reason why a CMP is so useful is that it makes consent management processes smoother, easier, and more efficient. An effective and privacy-compliant CMP must have the following features:
In principle, all privacy regulations agree that consent must be freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous. This implies that the data subject must at least be aware of the controller’s identity, what kind of data will be collected and processed, how it will be used, and the purpose of the processing operations. While businesses are building new capabilities into their forms, mobile apps, and websites to enable consent capture, having a solution for notification and consent capture immensely simplifies this requirement.
Websites and businesses collect and store identifiers such as IP addresses, device IDs, location data, and cookies, which are now considered personal data. This information is shared or leaked to various advertising and marketing platforms to provide value-added services. Therefore, it is essential that platforms involved in this process notify and obtain consent from their users before collecting and processing their data. Consent propagation must be supported and managed.
This is easier said than done since most businesses have personal data scattered around multiple systems or silos, with different identities for the same user in different processes and environments. An enterprise-wide view of data and identity is essential for effective consent management.
Most businesses undertook a flurry of consent capture and re-consent efforts to meet GDPR deadlines but ended up with solutions that act as static databases for consent frameworks and preferences. Without the ability to link consent to identities, consent is once again scattered around silos with multiple instances of consent for a single user. This makes opt-out and consent withdrawal decisions very difficult to implement across the organization. Therefore, operationalizing consent management is a critical requirement for consent management solutions.
While an effective CMP makes it easier for an organization to comply with its regulatory obligations, it’s important to understand that different organizations have different methodologies and by extension, different attitudes towards consent. Hence, most organizations’ needs from their CMP will be different from others in the market.
As a result, there are different CMP software solutions available in the market that cater to various specific and often, unique needs of organizations. Differences between the various options may include ease of use, price, functionalities, and overall support.
However, most CMP solutions will most likely operate in the same way. This includes:
Learn how to market while complying with global privacy laws and user consent requirements.
Although most consent management platforms get the job done, there are certain things that you need to look for in a CMP to make sure it is exactly what you are looking for.
The process of effective consent management always begins with the right notifications. First off, users must be informed that their personal data is being processed. Detailed information about the scope of data processing must be included in the Privacy Policy, in a pop-up notice, or both. Users must be empowered to decide if they agree to the specific purpose of processing. Consent must be captured and consolidated. Key consent management capabilities include:
1. Privacy Center
2. Website Scanning and Cookie/Form-based Consent Management
The CMP should simplify the notification, collection, and propagation of consent to approved 3rd party solutions to meet business objectives. Key capabilities should include:
1. Adherence to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) framework
2. Improve accessibility to consent data
1. Collect, normalize and aggregate consent from multiple sources.
2. Correlate multiple consent actions by the same data subject
3. Evaluate policies from a central location
A CMP should enable and comply with a consumer’s request to opt-out or withdraw consent to the processing or sale of personal data.
1. Consent management portal
2. Integrate consent management into data maps and business process flow diagrams
3. Single Identity Dashboard
If you want to know whether your CMP is up to the mark and has all the capabilities necessary to operate efficiently, we have drafted a checklist to help you figure out if your CMP is the one.
1. Duty to Provide Information
2. Consent
3. Setting cookies
4. Legally compliant documentation
5. Opt-out and Opt-In
Consent is one of the most, if not the most, important data privacy requirements worldwide. Fulfilling this regulation using manual methods is tedious, costly and risky. Adopting the PrivacyOps framework can help the organization in the following ways:
Given the increased frequency and severity of enforcement around consent violations, it is wise to invest in automation at an early stage of the compliance process and prepare your organization for data privacy regulations around the world - not just the existing ones but also those that are upcoming.
A Consent Management Platform (CMP) is a software solution designed to facilitate the collection, management, and tracking of user consent for data processing activities. It enables organizations to comply with data protection regulations by providing users with clear and transparent options to grant or deny consent for various types of data processing.
Whether you need a Consent Management Platform depends on your organization's data processing activities and the regulatory requirements you must adhere to. If your organization collects and processes user data, especially sensitive data, in accordance with data protection laws such as GDPR, implementing a CMP can help ensure compliance and build trust with users.
The consent management process involves several steps:
CMP in GDPR refers to a Consent Management Platform that helps organizations comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by facilitating the proper collection, documentation, and management of user consent for data processing activities.
The purpose of consent management is to empower individuals with control over their personal data. It ensures that organizations obtain informed and explicit user consent before processing their data. Consent management also aids organizations in meeting legal obligations, building transparency, and fostering trust with users.
Benefits of a Consent Management Platform include:
Note: Specific features and benefits of a Consent Management Platform may vary based on the provider and the needs of your organization.
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