Marketers have been cautioned against the use of customer data without their consent, especially in this era of internet marketing.

In a bid to reach a wider audience, some marketers have over the years resorted to the use of the internet thereby falling on personal data of even non-customers and bombarding them with unsolicited marketing materials.

Speaking with Joy Business at this year’s CIMG Strategic Marketing Conference, Managing Partner of business law firm A.B. and David, Isabel Boateng said marketers should not lose sight of the legal rights of these persons.

She pointed out that although internet marketing is the way to go and cannot be avoided in this era, marketers should know their boundaries.

“You are marketing in an era where there is a dark side, where identities could even be bought online, and so many other things.”

Brand definition she indicated is very important in these times and is premised on integrity and trust, hence, for a marketer to be able to promote that brand, it is very important that they understand the regulatory issues that affect how they market.

According to him, regulatory issues surrounding privacy, consumer protection and electronic transactions, specifically the data protection Act should be important to all marketers.

“It is important for marketers to understand what their obligations are in this era. There are legal issues related to how you process the personal data of data subjects (customers) so marketers will be deemed as data controllers and they have a responsibility to ensure that they have a secure and high safety standards in terms of how they collect data, how they hold and use information and so on” she emphasized.

 Madam Boateng added that with electronic transactions there are rules in terms of the nature of marketing that can be done, issues related to unsolicited marketing, etc.

“So I think marketers need to understand what all these issues are in order to be able to stay in the market”, she said.