Only A Third of Consumers Opting-In to GDPR Compliance

Nearly two-thirds of Americans contacted on the eve of today’s deadline to comply with Europe’s new data privacy rules say they have either ignored, opted out immediately or put their consent off until later, according to a survey conducted late Thursday by Research Intelligencer and Pollfish.

Only 30.4% of the respondents said they agreed to those requests immediately.

While the EU’s so-called GDRP, or General Data Protection Regulation, theoretically affects only European citizens, U.S.-based brands, media companies and platforms have been rushing to get permission from users in preparation for today’s deadline, because of the potential liability of inadvertently violating the rights of EU citizens in the U.S.

The findings are closely aligned with those of a survey of media buyers and planners released late Thursday by contextual targeting platform Vibrant, indicating that they believe 43% of consumer targeting data would be made “unusable” by GDPR compliance.

Most American consumers said they had never heard of the GDPR rules, but an overwhelming majority (81%) said they felt the U.S. should pass regulations protecting their right to control how others use their personal data.