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Brace yourselves, GDPR is coming… a guest post from Ed Mead

02.05.18

Like me, you’re probably bored with receiving more and more ‘please opt-in’ GDPR emails. Like most you probably agree it’s a good thing – unless you’re a marketeer in which case you suspect it’s all a bit Y2K – for those of us old enough to remember the world was meant to come to an end at 00.01 on 1/1/2000 as most digital instruments were apparently calibrated to only the last two digits and so would think it was 1900, not 2000. The only winners then were ‘consultants’ and suspect there’s been a little ‘scaring’ going on this time too.

I read recently with interest Matt Lowndes’s decision to delete his Facebook account and can’t help feeling that, although the GDPR thing is a bit heavy-handed, the pendulum has swung far too far in the easy data, let’s all do everything online direction.

I was with the head of one of the biggest UK estate agents earlier today and he used a fun analogy. Butchers have seen business dwindle as people bought/ordered ready cuts meat. But suddenly upmarket butchers have queues around the block again. It’s all about perceived value and service.

“there’ll always be a proper middle ground”

The reason I mention the above is that whatever you think about the overshoot in data usage there’ll always be a proper middle ground. I don’t think we’ll ever get all our mortgages online, in the same way, we won’t all using driverless cars [bloody hope not anyway] and that people will always be prepared to pay for something that is a cut above.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if so many Matt’s deleted their Facebook accounts that they had to come back cap in hand to apologise for allegedly being used to cause much of the political upheaval we currently see around us? Now that’s a return to old values I could really get behind.

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Andrew Montlake

Written by Andrew Montlake

Andrew Montlake, better known as Monty, began his journey with an Hons degree in Economics & Politics before starting in the mortgage industry in February 1994. As a main founder of Coreco in 2009, he successfully grew the brand, marketing, and communications, and was made MD in 2019 focussing on the overall vision, strategy, and culture of the company. As Coreco’s media spokesperson, Andrew can often be seen or heard on TV and radio as well as regularly commenting in the national, local, and trade press. He is the author of this acclaimed Mortgage Blog and is well-known for his social media, podcasts, and public speaking. Andrew is now proud to serve as Chairman of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries, (AMI) as a cheerleader for the Mortgage Industry as a whole and continues to work at the coal face, writing mortgage business and advising clients.

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