One-to-one marketing to become opt-in across the board
The new regulation would rule out any contact that isn't expressly permitted by your prospects: signalling the end of targeted online ads, direct mail and cold sales calls unless you can prove explicit consent.

The end of analytics?
The proposals seek to reclassify internet users' IP addresses as private information and inaccessible to marketers, leaving your analytics tools with only the most basic of information.

Prohibition of profiling
Your business would no longer be allowed to target marketing at specific consumer profiles, risking your marketers shooting in the dark. It would also be prohibited to gather individuals' data without their explicit consent, making it hugely difficult to tailor their experience of your brand or process. This also looks set to undermine your ability to learn, innovate and grow using the depth of insight that data currently offers.

The 'right to be forgotten'
Individuals are set be given the right to request the complete deletion of their data from your company's records. Whilst well-intentioned in theory, this would be a logistical nightmare in practice – and one that's set to cost your firm money to administer.

The hidden costs
This huge overhaul of data protection is likely to mean new costs for businesses. You might need to create new data systems, your staff will need to be retrained and your legacy customer databases could become unusable. Compliance records will need to be kept and it is likely that there will be more requests by individuals for copies of their personal data.