Surely you've already seen the predictions of fines and sanctions that the LGPD brought with it, right? Thanks to a long history in Brazil we now have a new law, the LGPD, but what does this mean for businesses?

Before taking an alarmist or even pessimistic perspective on the law, it is essential to clarify that the use of personal data by businesses has not been prohibited, but simply more regulated. This means that you as an entrepreneur or specialist in your market can and should maintain your work and strategies, though you must now understand how to adapt your business model to the regulations that the law prescribes for the use of personal data.

So what does the LGPD mean for your company?

Below you will find as brief and practical as possible a compilation of key information that will serve as a guide through the doubts you might face on your path to understanding and, above all, meeting the expectations of this new law!

After several years of work initiatives and studies on data, marketing, and privacy on the internet, we need to make a confession: we’ve honestly seen it all. We've been in this market from the birth of predictive analytics concepts and all the Adtechs that have emerged since then, through the rise and fall of Cambridge Analytica and its scandals and leaks, countless analyses and documentaries, Wikileaks, Snowden, and so on.

As such, we’ve followed the market through the emergence of the GDPR and its derivatives around the globe, which today, here in Brazil, has culminated in the LGPD. For almost seven years we have been working daily with several of the pillars that the “Marketing for Data” sector is so familiar with today:

• The construction of data models for analysis of performance metrics
• Sequential, non-relational, physical, cloud databases and many others
• Numerous features of tracking tags, fingerprints, SDKs, etc.
• Endless technology, privacy, rumors and browser updates with their third-party cookie blocks
• Various integrations with ad servers, CRMs, email tools, DSPs, cookie syncs with DMPs, data providers, credit bureaus, etc.
• Firewalls, backdoors, security routines, DNS, etc.

In short, there are more than 200 million unique users mapped on our systems, and 40,000 sites have passed through our network since 2015, when we created the first version of our tag and cookie technology.

After all this experience, we’ve realized that the knowledge we’ve gained is not useful unless:

1. We promptly implement the best work and safety practices.
2. We are able to translate international theories into our legislation and local market realities.
3. We debunk the idea that starting the work requires infinite and extremely elaborate resources.
4. The theory generates a real gain for customers, and consequently sales for both sides.

Over the course of 2019 we interviewed nearly 250 companies about the LGPD, its impact, and their perceptions of the challenges of adaptation. We learned that their main difficulties were understanding the law, lack of skilled labor, difficulties with handling new technologies and, last but not least, the administration and collection of the consent of data owners.

Since then we’ve understood that the LGPD remains an open question for most, and at the same time that we, who are a living part of the market, have in our hands the opportunity to reinforce how seriously privacy should be taken. Privacy is an individual right of all citizens that should be valued and protected before it is lost.

How much harder is it these days to ignore the elephant in the room, the growing number of cell phones and devices collecting text, audio, and video data in virtually every home?

The fact is, privacy legislation is here to stay! Yes, we are at a point of no return when it comes to data usage by our favorite gadgets. With that, it's essential that we know the value of privacy while we still, at least theoretically, have control. It’s especially important that we have access to technologies that work in our favor, not only collecting our data but also giving us the freedom of choice when faced with the countless collection occasions that we face daily. Yes, before data is collected the choice to consent must have been made by a free citizen who was informed of their rights clearly, and their decision must be respected.

So, in the midst of this accumulation of data, services, doubts, and endless testing of technologies, AdOpt was born.

We spent years studying the law and applying it practically with the goal of minimizing the negative consequences that the marketing and advertising industries could suffer following its enactment. We did this not only because of the GDPR, which drastically reduced the revenue of large publishers when it came into effect in Europe, but also because of the needs of the maturing Brazilian market, which is confronting countless technologies that haven’t been tested due to the limitations of local budgets.

AdOpt began as a quick and practical way for all companies to communicate and collect the consent of their visitors, without running the risk of destroying their metrics and engagement with one more ugly warning that looks like a paywall (or we could say privacy wall?).

Throughout AdOpt's journey and evolution as a product, we have also aimed to democratize access to information about the legislation and its application, so that we can all respect everyone's privacy!

From a commercial point of view, we came to the conclusion that the market lacked some easy-to-understand positioning and, above all, demystification of the interests of some sectors of the market with regard to the new General Law for the Protection of Personal Data, the LGPD. Lawyers, accountants, IT professionals, and several other groups are eager to grab their share of the market, and this is perfectly understandable, since the law encompasses knowledge from several areas simultaneously. However, in terms of privacy, we at AdOpt believe that there are two principles more important than any market advantage:

Yes, freedom is of immeasurable value and only those who lose it are able to truly describe the impact of its absence. Whether in access to information, the right to come and go, freedom of the press, or the simple right to be forgotten. We are the generation that not only created memes, but also “cancel culture,” fierce criticism of “fake news,” the banning of some social networks, and more. Based on the premise of valuing truth, we sometimes forget to measure the real impact of some unilateral mechanisms that end up overshadowing the real value of freedom.

The LGPD is also a mechanism that helps citizens to maintain their freedom in the face of internet giants.

Back when the internet was a simple cluster of half a dozen blogs and news portals, the LGPD would never have made sense. However, it was thanks to these internet anchors that the opportunity to monetize people's attention on certain pages was created! Without the big publishers we would not have programmatic media and all the opportunities to automate the money flow now generated globally, with the scale and proportion that we have today.

Without programmatic media we would not have social media as we know it.

Perhaps this introduction smacks of “manifesto” when we extol so strongly the value of privacy and freedom, as expressed through free access to information and consequently in the production of content. Here's another confession for you, dear reader. AdOpt today functions to provide cookie notices, as well as helping as a CMP (Consent Management Platform). But you’ll be surprised to see what’s ahead as we connect all these dots and give you access to the technologies we’re designing!

The subject is not over yet, but we hope you have understood how passionate we are about it and will allow us to guide you through! In our next chapter (article) we want to show you the basis for understanding the law: The Legal Bases of the LGPD, See you there!