Since May 25th something unusual has been happening to me. For the first time in a very long time I have been unsubscribing from all sorts of things. Top of the list has been newsletters and then a host of other emails that keep sending me wonderful special offers. In the past I simply ignored them, in fact with some of the less reputable spammers that sent me emails, I felt that by giving my email address to them by unsubscribing I was in fact validating my email address on their lists.
However, since May 25th I have felt empowered and I can only thank the implementation GDPR for doing this. Yes, GDPR has caused me a great deal of work and in fairness income through consultancy, it has also freed up my inbox. I now own my own data and can instruct others how I want this to be used. This is a good feeling and for me an unexpected benefit. All this time I have been looking at GDPR as a data controller and processer, not as a consumer. Now I see the real benefits of it and as I said I feel empowered and have unsubscribe fever.
Like many other I guess I have lost people from my mailing lists and I have configured my systems to be GDPR compliant. Users of my systems can now manage their own data and delete it if they wish (subject to no transaction being undertaken that the data is needed for). I have handed over control of the data to the individual, so they get to choose. Its true I have lost people from my mailing lists, (I chose and active opt in to the list) but those that remain are genuinely interested in my services, so I know the list is of real value.
I have said before that data is the currency of the 21st century and GDPR recognizes this. A whole generation of Internet users surrendered privacy for the use of an app or a website. I think they were simply unaware of what they were doing or the value of the information they were revealing.
So, all in all GDPR is a good thing that has freed up my inbox and given me an unexpected feeling of empowerment. I have no idea how long my unsubscribe feeling will last for now but I am enjoying it.