GDPR One Year On

New Ipsos survey finds that one year on from the introduction of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), only four in ten (41%) believe that companies have become more transparent about how they use consumers’ data.  Whilst only a quarter noticed that the emails they received are more relevant to them. 

The new rules appear to have had a greater impact on younger generations with over half (53%) of those aged between 16-24 noticing a difference in companies’ transparency regarding data use and a third agreeing that marketing emails have become more relevant to them in the past year. 

A significant difference has been noticed on websites, with almost 6 in 10 (59%) stating that in order to use many companies’ websites they now have to agree to sharing personal data with the company. Half as many (29%) agreed that they had received  fewer emails than before the regulations had been put in place. 

Almost half of people (47%) agreed that they trusted companies who let them control who they shared personal data with, this increased by ten percentage points among those ages between 16-24.

Four in ten believe that companies do not care if they are in breach of data laws such as GDPR, with slightly more men than women being sceptical (43% and 36% respectively). Of those that claimed to know “a great deal” about GDPR, almost half (48%) believed this to be true.
While the majority of people had at least heard about GDPR (93%), only 39% said they knew a fair amount about it. Under half (48%) of respondents said that they understood their rights around the use of their personal data, this increased to 80% of those that claimed to know “a great deal” about the regulations. It is surprising that only a third of those that had never heard of GDPR said that they did not understand their rights. 

Three in ten people believe that it is easy to make choices about how their personal data is used by companies, this increases by ten percentage points among those aged 25-34, with only 27% of those aged 55-75 finding it easy.
 

Technical note:

• The research was conducted on i:omnibus, Ipsos’s online omnibus, it surveyed a quota sample of 2228 adults in the United Kingdom aged 16-75 between 5th - 9th April 2019. Data has been weighted to the known population profile to be nationally representative by age, gender, government office region, working status and social grade.