How would you react if we told you that you couldn't use your favorite analytics tools any longer? Well, for roughly 90% of apps, you can't, or at least not in a way that is GDPR compliant.

When the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect on May 25th, 2018, it was a game changer in terms of the level of control consumers had over how companies collected, stored, and processed their personal information. It shifted the burden of achieving and maintaining GDPR compliance to app owners.

It also fundamentally altered the concept of consent. It transitioned from something that could be assumed tacitly because an individual had not opted out of giving permission for their personal data to be collected and used, to a situation in which the consumer must be actively informed and opt in.

App permissions under GDPR

Clearly, this has an impact on digital marketing in general and app GDPR compliance in particular, particularly when it comes to app permissions.

It is no longer acceptable for an app owner to ignore what third-party SDKs (i.e. marketing tools) installed on the app track about their users. Apps cannot track a user's location, IP address, or any other type of data that could lead to a specific user's identification without their explicit consent. However, according to a Usercentrics study published in October 2022, the majority of apps reviewed are not GDPR-compliant; more on this later.

In this post, we'll go over what you need to do to ensure your app complies with GDPR. This will help you gain your users' trust and respect by being open and transparent with them about the personal information the app collects and why.

According to a recent Blinkist case study, incorrectly setting up consent banners could result in a €300,000 revenue loss. According to a Sensor Tower report, 2022 was the first year on record in which app store growth slowed, with Apple's introduction of its ATT framework cited as the primary cause.

It's time for a paradigm shift. Consent is not an impediment to a successful app business; it is a requirement that also presents a great opportunity. By being open and transparent with your customers about what personal data you want to collect, why you want to collect it, and what value the customer receives from the process, you earn their trust and long-term loyalty, which ultimately benefits the bottom line.

So, before you ask customers to share their personal information with you, consider whether you really need it. If you don't have it, don't ask for it.

Recital 42 of the GDPR, Burden of Proof and Requirements for Consent, states unequivocally that the entity seeking consent bears sole responsibility for ensuring that the consumer can freely give their consent and the extent to which it is given.

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So, what effect does the GDPR have on mobile app marketing?

Because data protection authorities are increasing their scrutiny and enforcement of the GDPR, mobile app marketers must take user privacy and data collection seriously. They must be completely transparent:

• What information does the app collect?
• What methods are used to collect, store, and process data?
• What are the data's intended uses?
• How can customers opt out of data collection (or later withdraw consent)?

What information does the app collect?

The GDPR requires that it be as simple for a consumer to refuse consent or withdraw it in the future as it is to give it. However, rather than viewing all of this as a negative, app marketers should view it as a positive. It allows them to gain the trust of their users by being completely open with them about the data they want to collect, the reasons for doing so, and the value exchange.

What methods are used to collect, store, and process data?

The methods used to collect data are also important. There must be no pre-filled information in your app if you want it to be GDPR compliant.

App marketers, for example, cannot assume that a user, even if they know their name, self-identifies as a man or a woman. Consent for data use cannot also be checked off by default. Such actions are known as "nudges" or "dark patterns," and they are frowned upon and illegal in some jurisdictions.

Consumers must be free to fill out all fields in any form requested by the app, without the app pre-populating any fields on their behalf.

App marketers must respect user privacy at all stages of the app lifecycle, especially when developing the app. This is known as "designing privacy". At this point, the app developer has a blank canvas to work with and can ensure that the app's design, including any instances of data collection, respects the user's privacy.

What are the data's intended uses?

When it comes to the GDPR and app permissions, you can incorporate privacy settings that allow a user to see what data is collected for many purpose categories to a granular degree if you take this to the extreme in the most user-centric way possible.

App Performance and Analytics; Messaging; Personalization, Functional, or Essential, to name a few.

Within each of these, the app user can access all of the data collection instances that the app wishes to invoke and toggle each one on or off.

How can customers opt out of data collection?

You will gain the user's trust by giving them the granular ability to opt in or out of multiple data collection instances, which will benefit the bottom line. According to a 2022 study conducted by Google and Ipsos, providing a positive privacy experience can increase the brand preference of your app by 43%. According to the same study, users are twice as willing to share their personal information with a brand they trust.

It's a virtuous circle: tell your users what data you want to collect and why. This will help you gain their trust, making them more willing to share personal information with you and more likely to become long-term customers.

With access to this data, you will be able to continue running remarketing and re-engagement campaigns. It will also allow you to accurately attribute installs to a specific campaign and build predictive models for developing a strong user acquisition strategy, which will be supported by whatever mobile analytics tools you use.

Conclusion

App GDPR compliance should not be viewed as a bonus or something to consider after all other boxes have been checked. It should be the first thing on the app developers' to-do list when they begin working on the app's wireframes.

According to studies of the mobile app economy, CRM and lifecycle tactics are becoming more important than ever, necessitating a greater emphasis on user retention and remarketing campaigns, for which user data is essential.

Several recent studies clearly show that consent is critical to user acquisition and retention; however, many apps fail to see this as an opportunity to build customer trust, avoid large fines, and grow their app business more effectively by adhering to data privacy regulations.

In other words, consent is increasingly becoming a clear competitive advantage, and those who evolve first and develop better data strategies for their businesses will benefit in the long run. As a result of the widespread deprecation of third-party cookies, the internet economy is shifting toward end-user consent, as evidenced by Google's introduction of Google Consent Mode and server-side tagging.

Highlights

Having a functional consent solution that allows your app to be fully compliant is likely to result in higher user acceptance rates, which means more consent and higher-quality data.

It's time for a paradigm shift. Consent is not an impediment to a successful app business; rather, it is a requirement and a fantastic opportunity for app marketers to get ahead of the competition.