I get it. I really do. You’re building a company that’s processing personal data and are frustrated by Europe coming up with a new set of rules.

Making changes to your privacy statement or terms of service is the easy part. If you’re working on a CRM, ad tech product or E-Commerce platform, you are most likely looking at product changes. Oh, and please get started on appointing a Data Protection Officer (DPO).

It’s easy to complain about .eu bureaucracy. It’s easy to complain about a 200-page document coming from a bunch of politicians out of Brussels. But let’s take a quick step back first.

What is GDPR?

For the people

Let’s not forget that these rules were invented for the people. The tech industry is moving at such a fast pace, and old rules just haven’t caught up to what’s going on today.

The problem

While technology is eating up the world, we are slowly falling asleep behind the driving wheel. We’re addicted to our phones, blindly follow what the media feeds us, and the current media environment and our short attention spans can drive the outcome of the presidential election.

Therefore quoting Trump’s tweets, or quoting the latest stupidest thing that any political candidate or anyone else says, is an effective way to exploit people’s basest instincts. And that is dumbing the entire world down. Source (the Guardian): Evan Williams

I think most people don’t even know how advanced today’s data collection initiatives and learning algorithms are. Most of us do not fully understand how much sensitive personal information is collected and stored, or how that affects our day to day lives.

Millennials — or those between the ages of 18–24 — check their smartphones an average of 69 times per day — the most often of any other age group included in our data. source: Verto Analytics

All data captured and analyses used to follow us around the internet and efficiently target ads or content to increase engagement or shape your opinion about a brand or topic. To make matters worse, collected information is often frequently sold to the highest bidder.

Software is eating the world

We’re just scratching the surface of what data algorithms (AI, deep learning, Natural Language Processing, Predictive modelling) are capable of. I am confident that at a distant point in time our algorithms will become so efficient that it’s just flat out creepy.

While sending a personalized mailing with a list of suggested products might benefit the customer, sending a brochure advertising baby prospects because pregnancy signals were caught through purchase behaviour analysis is flat out creepy.

Continuing this path will soon bring us into a Wall-E like situation where we’re collectively getting dumb, brainwashed by smart algorithms that know what content, product or emotion we’re craving for.