5 days into the launch of GDPR, MEF CEO Rimma Perelmuter joined Katryna Dow, founder and CEO of Meeco, Amanda Long, Director-General of Consumers International, Shadi Razak, CTO of Cynation, and moderator Mark Little, senior manager at GSMAi for a keynote panel at the m360 Privacy & Security Event in The Hague to reflect on what we’ve learned to date and what lies ahead.

As reported on Mobile World Live, ‘Experts say consumers are wising up on personal data’ the panel stressed the challenges companies face in building trust with users and what needs to change in order for GDPR regulation to achieve on its full potential.

Panellists explored a number of key issues including changing consumer habits, how companies and consumers have reacted to the GDPR launch to date, opportunities enabled by the regulation and visions around what should happen next.

All focused on the importance of building trust with users and learning from the hysteria levels of emails sent over the last two weeks and the confused reactions of consumers to the changes to understand how difficult it is. At the same time, the panel emphasised that GDPR is only an opportunity not just for compliance but as a way to build and preserves trust, create transparent processes and have users and businesses benefit from their data.

On this point, Katryna emphasised that the importance of the value exchange and what it takes to benefit–‘If value proposition is clear, people participate.

She stressed that ‘What lies ahead is a generation that is ready to interact with their data with the idea of equity and value.’ while Amanda focused on the win-win situation for all parties involved and the mobile industry’s opportunity to take a lead to create awareness, loyalty and build on value exchange.

In looking to the future, Rimma stressed that the ‘Rules of GDPR are written but the rules of engagement need to be defined and we need to better understand the changing consume habits’. To this end, MEF is advancing its 2018 Consumer Trust Survey and working with its members to create specific guidance/code of conduct for the mobile ecosystem to unpack and address the inevitable grey areas that come with such a broad and far reaching set of regulations. You can watch the video of the panel, and the full keynote sessions from day 1 here.

To read more perspectives on GDPR, download the latest MEF eBulletin.