Quantcast Research Reveals that 90% of Visitors to EU domains give GDPR Consent

A report released by consent management platform Quantcast Choice has shown that, for European Union (EU) domains an average consent rate over 90 percent is being recorded.

However there are a few provisos to take into account with this news. Namely, the reported 90 percent consent rate is actually the rate averaged across EU-based web domains that presented consent screens to all visitors, including those with European Union IP addresses. There was no additional  breakdown of the results for visitors specifically from the US or with non-EU registered IP addresses or those who gave consent to some aspects but not to all of them. So the reported rate just reviewed both those who said yes to everything and those who said yes to some aspects.

However, Quantcast were in a position to to state that around 81 percent of all users said yes to all aspects. The other 8 percent said yes to some aspects.

Despite the fact that Quancast’s consent solution supports about 9,000 unique domains globally, the company was unable to provide a specific figure on the consent rate recorded by EU-based domains included in the 81 percent.

The revelation published by Quncast also significant as it comes in the aftermath of a previous report in July by publishing and performance marketing service Purch which showed the user consent rate for EU-based visitors to their site was about 70 percent, for at least some use of personal data for marketing purposes.

Quantcast’s head of product and privacy Somer Simpson said: “Equally, advertisers need to know whether the audiences they are targeting have consented and typically find those audiences to be more valuable. The more forward-thinking companies on both sides have already taken action, and we’re now seeing a larger number wake up to the fact that they need to adapt.”

The results of this poll come after a earlier survey result, from Quantcast, that indicated that 33% of global chief marketing officers think that utilizing data to target individual consumers will be a top strategic priority over the next three years.

Following the introduction of GDPR on May 25 companies now possible possible penalties up to 4% of global revenue or €20m, whichever figure is higher.

In an interview with The Drum Mark Keddie, global data protection officer, at Dentsu Aegis said:“As petabytes of data flow through marketing departments, it’s no surprise that chief marketing officers identify data breach or misuse as the number one strategic risk.

“The reputational and financial impacts for getting it wrong are well-documented. The subsequent opportunity-cost when an organisation loses confidence in its ability to manage and use data responsibly should not be underestimated.

“​There’s a significant dividend that can be delivered through the responsible use of data, but marketers will continue to be held accountable as they come to terms with GDPR and as law makers – most recently in California – ratchet-up obligations on business and organisations in general.”