What is Consent Management Platform and the benefits of using it?

A consent management platform (CMP) is a tool that helps websites and app developers to obtain and manage consent from users for the use of their personal such as cookies or other tracking technologies. A CMP provides a centralized platform for managing and storing user consent, as well as for displaying consent notices and allowing users to adjust their preferences for tracking. The purpose of a CMP is to help organizations comply with privacy regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), which require that users be informed about and give their consent for the collection and use of their personal data. The data privacy regulations and laws started a sweeping movement for companies to implement and adhere to consent management, as non-compliance can result in serious fines and penalties. The principle about data privacy is that users always have the owerneship rights over their personal data.

For not only the compliance reason, a CMP enables companies to give users personalized service which improve customer satisfaction and profitability in the data-driven marketing approach, as well as a sense of security to use the services in the privacy-centric marketing approach (About the benefits of data-driven marketing, it is explained in more detail in Benefits and challenges in data-driven marketing).

Types of consent: Opt-out and Opt-in

Opt-out consent is a method in which companies divulge that they collect and use data and allow users to opt-out if they wish. With this option, users must take an action like unchecking a pre-checked box or filling out a form in order to withdrow their consent for data to be collected and used. The opt-out approach is no longer accepted under GDPR, requiring the opt-in approach for companies who operate internationally as they work to maintain compliance with privacy regulations.

With opt-in consent, users must take an action to confirm their consent to collect and use their personal information. Companies use this method for opting in to cookies, subscriptions, and more. Requiring users to manually consent to some or all of data collection and use policies gives users greater control over their data and its use.

Benefits of using CMP

Non-compliance can nowadays come with legal trouble and fines. The GDPR is the strictest data protection law and has been used to levy hundreds of fines for companies that operate in the European Union. On the other hand, data privacy is about more than just avoiding legal fines for non-compliance. People recently demand transparency in data privacy. Accordingly online data including internet access is considered a basic human rights. While laws or regulations about data privacy have yet to be established well, users increasingly demand trasparency in their online activities more than that. The latest trends in privacy law enforcement point to how seriously regulators take proper consent management, at the same time there is a positive side: consent compliance is a key opportunity to show users that you respect their data. Having proper consent management and user-friendly policies can help build public trust and loyalty with consumers and potential ones. The way companies handle data privacy can be a point of differentiation and even a source of competitive business advantage, accourding to a report by McKinsey. Consider consent management is a chance to build trust with your users.