B2B Marketing Blog

Don't hurt me Arch...I'm only little!

June 9, 2009 3:12 PM | By Richard Lloyd
Did we really need another survey to tell us that almost one in five SMEs have breached the Data Protection Act (DPA)?  Or, that in half of all SMEs there is no one assigned with responsibility for data protection?

Being little or not is no excuse to ignore the DPA but do B2B firms, in particular, always take into account that the DPA also applies to them?  In the media the focus is always on the personal and individual.  So much so, many forget that business data is also at a personal level – when have you ever met someone within a business that isn’t a person too?

In my experience data is typically no one’s or everyone’s responsibility.  It is only when data is the responsibility of the business owner or at a senior level that real commitment to data quality, best practice and understanding of its power really comes into play.  As B2B marketers what do you think – who should be given data responsibility and would you prefer to absolve all rights to the responsibility that comes your way?

1 Comments

Anonymous said:

As a minimum it should be a board level responsibility, if not the CEO or owner themselves.

This would solve two problems. Firstly, there is the vague chance that the company as a whole would start to take a grown up attitude towards data collection and use and secondly, there is the outside chance that more marketers might find themselves invited to join their respective boards. A place where marketers in general are woefully under-represented.

Fear tends to be a good motivator though. Perhaps a few "high profile" sacrificial lambs need to be thrown the way of the ICO. Faced with a choice between initiating a data policy or doing 3 months in pokey the CEO's out there might start taking the subject seriously.

November 25, 2009 4:25 PM

Leave a comment