EPs: Help SME’s by speeding up on new EU regulation on privacy.

Why is it allowed for shopkeepers to watch what customers do in their main street shops? They are allowed to look how their customers behave. Do they see the promotion right at the entrance or are they walking by without noticing.  But in some countries in Europe this not allowed anymore without previous consent of the visitor. And because of the fear of cookies we already noticed this is not easily given by the public who does not understand the difference between the different functionalities of cookies.

Some shopkeepers in Europe are bewildered. They do not understand why they are allowed to have cctv in their stores but are not allowed to see what is happening in their web shops. These SME’s are not tracking visitors from website to website using third party cookies. They do not sell customers profiles. They are only concerned about providing the best service towards their customers by making improvements on their website. Most of them only use Google Analytics.

Now with the new “cookie laws” in Europe, it depends on the country they are located, if it is still allowed to do this. In my border town I heard shopkeepers complain how they need to find out the customers wishes, if they aren’t allowed to analyse the results of online behaviour anymore. In this harsh economic times, when they are already confronted with less sales, this will make live for the online/offline shopkeeper even harder.

This is especially the case when they are selling cross border and have to be compliant towards multiple and unequal laws. Large companies might find this mind breaking and cost consuming as well, but the smaller companies might have even more troubles in finding out the different needs and implementing this. It depends if their budget is enough to be compliant. In my home town lots of shop owners have a webshop beside their brick and mortar store and are also selling cross border.

I hope the EU will take action on this and make speed of the new EU regulation on privacy. One EU law on privacy will be more honest towards cross border sales, as competition is unequal when you have to deal with countries with a less strict vision on the use and opt-in on cookies.

A quick implementation on the new EU regulation will be a blessing towards companies both large and small. Now it will cost them lots of money to be compliant towards these multiple demands. So on behalve of these companies I call out to the( Euro) politicians to come up with this one regulation so cross border sales will less pain staking.