GDPR: Inspiring Consumer Data Best Practices

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a complex topic. So to explain it in a very human and (hopefully) humorous way, I first want to use an analogy about borrowing a car.

If you want me to lend you my car, I’d first ask you to please explain why you need to borrow it and how you will use it.

If you tell me that you will use it to take your grandmother to her doctor appointment and that you will bring it back to me in three hours, please don’t keep it overnight and let your cousin drive it to a rave in a neighboring country.

If I agreed to lend you my car only, don’t also use the bunch of keys I’ve given you to enter my house.

If I ask you to give back my car, please bring it back in one piece, not with the passenger seat missing.

And if you are renting a car, go to a reputable company where you can ask about all aspects of the car; don’t close a deal to rent a car with a man you know nothing about standing beside a parked car on the street. It may be stolen.

The gist is, if you treat personal data as your customer’s personal belongings, you are far more likely to keep that customer happy.