Free is one of France's leading internet and cell phone providers. The company is a member of the iliad group, present in France but also in Europe through its subsidiaries. As part of its compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Free has undertaken with Didomi the task of remaining compliant on their sites.
We met with Annabelle Moreaux, Head of Legal Affairs for personal data, and Laurent Zhang, Head of Digital, who shared their experiences with Didomi and the implementation of the Consent Management Platform (CMP) and cross-device functionality within the group.
Challenge: Ensure a seamless, compliant global user experience
Respecting user data is a very important issue for Free. With this in mind, the company has developed a strong corporate culture where most solutions are developed in-house.
However, the scale of the compliance project led Laurent and Annabelle to look for a trusted external partner to ensure the compliance of the company's 15 sites.
"At Free, we have a strong culture of protecting our subscribers' data, collecting only the bare minimum. Usually, we consider that it's always better to internalize all the technologies and all the development, but on this issue, we perceived an added value to outsource this management, for the comfort of our subscribers, to Didomi."
- Annabelle Moreaux, Head of Legal Affairs for Personal Data Free/iliad
The choice of Didomi as a supplier of consent management solutions was the result of a combination of criteria, which the two colleagues went into in detail during our discussions.
Solution: A partnership with an expert in Privacy UX
After a period of assessing their needs, Annabelle explains that Didomi emerged as a Privacy UX solution provider that matched the team's expectations for several reasons.
Firstly, Didomi is a French solution provider that hosts data in Europe, a fact that is important to emphasize at a time when debates over transatlantic data transfers are once again in the news.
Secondly, Didomi's solutions are easy to use and provide a seamless experience, both for Free's teams and for end-users, who can easily access their historical consent data.
This simplicity is an element frequently quoted by Didomi customers, while Laurent Zhang, Head of digital at Free/iliad, also highlights the CMP's customization possibilities:
"The tool is really very, very simple, and on top of that, being able to configure the consent banner as much as you like, to make it appear either through a pop-up or to have it sticky on the site, really makes the job easier."
- Laurent Zhang, Head of digital Free/iliad
Regarding the deployment of consent banners, Annabelle emphasizes the transparency and simplicity offered to Free customers thanks to Didomi's CMP.
As Laurent points out, the granularity of the solutions enables the company to better understand the customer's browsing path, and thus improve their experience - both on the website and on mobile applications, thanks to the cross-device function.
Results: A lasting relationship at a global scale
In conclusion, Annabelle highlights the personalized relationship established between Didomi and Free, and the regular follow-up that enables the company to meet its commercial challenges.
"What we really appreciate is that we have a real personalized relationship and daily follow-up that enables us to meet our simplicity challenges and Free's DNA, which is also Didomi's."
- Annabelle Moreaux, Head of Legal Affairs for Personal Data Free/iliad
Later on, the head of legal affairs for personal data stated that the Free and Didomi teams would continue to work together as part of the group's global harmonization projects at a European scale. The aim is to keep up to date with the latest recommendations from data protection authorities, such as the French DPA (French Data Protection Authority; CNIL) in France.
To find out more about Didomi's Global Privacy UX solutions, book a call with our teams:
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