Are you aware of the privacy laws that govern your marketing activities?

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The study, conducted by Worldwide Works and global technology company Zoho, found that although businesses are concerned about the privacy of customer data in the hands of third-party vendors, they are reliant on them to generate revenue and gather customer insights. . And this makes them go further.

World Wide Works CEO Arthur Goldstock says the lack of awareness of the law is mainly because these regulations are not part of business-critical activities like taxation and licensing. In fact, while 76% of businesses indicate that they have well-documented customer data protection policies, only 57% are strictly enforcing them. “When PoPIA is implemented and offenders receive severe penalties and receive negative media attention, most companies will begin to fully comply and restructure their marketing operations,” Goldstock said.

Third party trackers and advertising platforms

Of the 448 businesses surveyed across a range of industries and sizes, 42% said they allow third-party trackers on their websites, mostly to share content on social media (55%) and to collect analytics on their website visitors (40%). There is also a heavy reliance on digital advertising platforms. Respondents believe that keyword search ads (55%) and social media ads (54%) are most effective at converting customers. In fact, 72 percent of businesses say that third-party advertising platforms either help them meet or are the primary factor in achieving their sales goals.

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Given this reliance on third-party providers, it’s no surprise that, despite 73 percent of businesses expressing concerns about the use of their customer data, they are mostly either ‘comfortable’ or ‘neither comfortable’ or ‘comfortable’ with the platform. Even a dismal 23% say they can’t get away from the platform because it’s critical to their business, or it’s too complicated to get away from. Interestingly, 24% of businesses report that they don’t fully understand how third-party trackers and ad platforms use the collected customer data.

Zoho Africa Regional Manager Andrew Bourne said, “When businesses choose to use free tracking, they are paying for user data. Knowledge as an adjunct to monitoring Currently, South African businesses have turned a blind eye to this process of monitoring data collection, perhaps because they depend on them for revenue. PoPIA compliance changes that by requiring businesses to pre-notify consumers and access their own information. Consent to Track: However, consumers ultimately trust companies with transparent privacy policies that respect and protect their personal information. Businesses that want to stay relevant for the long term need to rethink their reliance on third-party platforms, or need more. Transparency and accountability from them.

Zoho removed third-party trackers from its website in 2020 and has never sold customer data to anyone or shown ads, even in their free products. Zoho owns the entire technology stack of its data centers and solutions. So it can ensure the highest levels of privacy and security for its users.

There is POPIA.

South African businesses believe that POPIA will have no effect (41%) or a positive effect (40%). The biggest concerns with the law are increased administrative costs (34%), less efficient marketing (30%) and increased complexity (28%). According to Goldstock, marketing is only effective for those who share their customers’ personal information behind the scenes, and not for those who do their best to comply with the law. However, he believes that administrative costs will be a concern for SMEs.

For context, all businesses in South Africa (regardless of size) must appoint a Privacy/Information Officer to oversee the protection of customer data. Larger businesses may appoint their CIOs or IT leaders to this new role, while smaller businesses may appoint their CEOs or business owners to the same role. This is a difficult task for small businesses, especially since the person in charge may be held personally liable for data leaks or breaches under the law.

This survey was conducted using Zoho Survey and Zoho Analytics.