Very few people have been spared the avalanche of emails from firms trying to comply with new data protection rules that come into effect today.
The rules, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), mean organisations have been scrambling to get their subscribers' explicit permission to keep emailing them. The new legislation applies to all firms that deal with European Union citizens' data and promises to strengthen consumers' rights.
It will give people the right to find out what information firms are holding about them, and to ask these firms to delete it, unless they can prove they have a good enough reason to retain it.
This is all great news for most of us, but the barrage of recent emails from firms about "changes to [their] privacy policy" and their desperate pleas to get us to opt in to their mailing lists, have been annoying to say the least. Many people turned to humour to help them cope with the tedium.
This was 0 before all the GDPR and privacy policy emails started. pic.twitter.com/FAjNMETz4S
— Interrobang Art (@Interrobang_Art) May 25, 2018
all these GDPR emails are like THIRSTY exes crawling back out the woodwork
— Jennifer Savin (@JenniSavin) May 23, 2018
After a confusing email, Donald Trump has declared war on the GDPR.
— Mr Roger Quimbly (@RogerQuimbly) May 25, 2018
The trouble with GDPR day is it's just become so commercial. People forget what's it's really about.
— Patrick Smith (@psmith) May 25, 2018
On the left: Trump's inauguration.
— dan barker (@danbarker) May 25, 2018
On the right: Crowd today celebrating GDPR. pic.twitter.com/nnlFjIGxNM
My vagina has updated her privacy policy.
— Lauren Duca (@laurenduca) May 24, 2018
💥 :the sound of 2 billion inboxes exploding: 💥 Happy GDPR Day!
— Kate Crawford (@katecrawford) May 25, 2018
Happy GDPR eve pic.twitter.com/5nnRiczHGV
— TwistedDoodles (@twisteddoodles) May 24, 2018
mood #GDPR #gdprjokes pic.twitter.com/HQSHbNfWUi
— Aimee de Jongh (@aimeedejongh) May 24, 2018
#GDPRday humour. Thanks @daicrunch for sharing. #dataprotection #gdprjokes pic.twitter.com/UBxbfNauCs
— Helen Gawor (@HelenGawor) May 24, 2018
Another common coping strategy over the last few days? Simply ignoring the emails.
Deleting today's round of #GDPR emails from my inbox like pic.twitter.com/zSbqY8p13c
— Evie the Cat (@HMCabinetCat) May 23, 2018
Me letting all the GDPR emails wash over me and not responding to any of them pic.twitter.com/YfB8oahDMR
— Juliet Mushens (@mushenska) May 22, 2018
Even the companies and organisations sending the emails sound like they've well and truly had enough, with some grasping at straws to try and keep consumers on board.
Absolute shout out to Popbitch’s GDPR message. pic.twitter.com/VypTBJB0k3
— Mark Di Stefano 🤙🏻 (@MarkDiStef) May 25, 2018
Labour GDPR email. You will “ruin Jeremy’s birthday” if you don’t sign up. pic.twitter.com/lRXe9yNQzP
— Alex Wickham (@WikiGuido) May 23, 2018
Amidst GDPR compliance madness!#GDPR #GDPRready #gdprjokes #DataProtection #GDPRcompliance #medialiteracy pic.twitter.com/wqiE5vlfiK
— EAVI Media Literacy (@_eavi) May 22, 2018
Some drew parallels between GDPR day and the historic referendum on abortion taking place in Ireland today.
Happy GDPR day, Ireland. It’s time to unsubscribe the fuck out of the 8th Amendment. #repealthe8th
— Zing Tsjeng (@misszing) May 25, 2018
Main picture: The holy father is sitting at a computer writing a mailmerge to the people of Ireland.
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) May 25, 2018
Caption: "What do you mean they've opted-out?! I bet the Apostle Paul never required GDPR consent from the Galatians!!!"
Give me £600k/year.
VOTING YES IS THE ONLY WAY TO BE GDPR COMPLIANT
— Patrick (@PrayForPatrick) May 25, 2018
A NO VOTE MEANS YOU WILL NOT BE GDPR COMPLIANT
IF YOU ARE NOT GDPR COMPLIANT YOU WILL BE ARRESTED
DO NOT RISK IT
VOTE YES AND BE GDPR COMPLIANT
If firms fail to comply with the regulations they'll be fined up to €20m (£17.5m) or 4% of global annual turnover, whichever figure is higher.
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