Aussie marketers ‘grossly ill-prepared’ for upcoming privacy changes says Arktic Fox study
Most Australian brands and marketing leaders are “grossly ill-prepared” for the upcoming changes to data privacy legislation, according to a report from advisory firm Arktic Fox.
In its Digital & Marketing in Focus study for 2023, Arktic Fox found that less than one in four of Australian marketing executives suggested that a focus on improving compliance with data privacy was a priority for the next 12 to 18 months.
Arktic Fox surveyed 230 marketing, digital and e-commerce leaders across Australia between November 2022 to February 2023 on a number of topics like how the marketing and digital industry is changing, the impact of challenges around privacy, martech, digital transformation initiatives and talent shortages.
To be fair: the privacy changes have not yet been legislated nor timings given for implementation so marketers do not yet know what they are to prepare for.
To be unfair: government privacy organisations in the GDPR zone have previously complained that the advertising industry’s replies have been slow, simple or flippant. The IAB was fined just last year and Meta this year – if GDPR implementation is anything to go by, the Australian authorities should be ready for the industry to ignore, delay and obfuscate at every opportunity and “grossly ill-prepared” is actually just part one of that strategy.