Approved in 2016, it gained popularity last year thanks to the "panic" that it created in companies with the approximate deadline for its application.

In the Digital Marketing perspective, the data treatment was and is the main concern of the General Regulation of Data Protection. The approximation of the date for application of these rules promoted the publication of numerous articles, reports and the flood of users’ inboxes with emails requiring authorization to continue to be contacted.

The non-application of this European standard included penalties that could go up to 4% of the company's turnover, so companies made efforts to correctly apply the  GDPR.

At the time, digital marketing professionals felt that GDPR, would be too restrictive and would have a negative impact on the campaigns and many thought it would be the end of Email marketing for example. Would mailing lists go back to zero? Many people thought so.

A year later, we know that all new contacts added to the lists after the GDPR came into force are leads that are really interested in the materials, content and services provided by the brands. This can be significant to get quality leads and get users to interact with each other, enabling a faster advance in the buying journey to become a customer.

One year later, we can look at the implementation of GDPR, as a positive change. Despite the initial alarmism, GDPR has become an opportunity for businesses and users to reduce the risk of attacks on their data, avoiding phishing, fraud and cyber attacks.

Change always requires adaptation and the arrival of GDPR was no exception. One year later, it can be said that the General Data Protection Regulation had a more positive impact than negative for both organizations and internet users.