The General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, enforcement date is fast approaching. If you haven’t heard of it or you don’t know what I’m referring to, don’t worry, your good friends at GB Agency are looking out. We’ll provide you with all the information you’ll need to know in order to become compliant with this new legislation.
GDPR is a European regulation that will go into effect on May 25th, 2018, which is right around the corner. It is a big deal and it will change the status quo significantly. How? Well for starters, it will place a lot of pressure on both EU and non-EU based businesses to provide more privacy and data security.
What You Need to Know
The GDPR is an update to the existing legislature called the Data Protection Directive. It will be enforced throughout the entirety of Europe including the UK. It’s a new set of rules and regulations that have been established in efforts to increase security. The idea behind it is for data handlers to offer better protection and privacy controls to the citizens. Businesses will need to adhere to these new precautions and processes concerning consumer data.
I know what you’re thinking, “This doesn’t apply to me, my business operates in the US.”
Yes, it is a EU law BUT any business, team, or brand that collects, holds, stores, processes any personal data from citizens of the EU will have to follow these new guidelines and specifications that are outlined by the law. And it’s not just consumers, it’s your employees, any personnel, clients and potential clients that are based in the EU.
What You Should Do
The legislation is pretty complex but we simplified it down to the following key factors:
-You will need to have an idea of what data you have and why you collected it
-The data you have collected will need to be organized and preserved accurately
-Establish all parties involved because you will need to provide access if necessary for security measures
-Conceal sensitive information that you or anyone else would not want to be exposed through encryption
-Begin implementing a security-aware culture within your business
– In the event of a security breach or attack, be prepared to respond quickly
Create a strategy to encompass all these action points and make sure to put it into place before May 25th. Call us and we can help!
It’s not really that much of a difference if you and your company already value the protection of data that you process regularly. As a business owner, maintaining a high level of security should be of the utmost importance so be smart. Don’t keep data on a public server, encrypt sensitive information and always implement strong authentication systems, ultimately take as many precautionary measures as you can.
What You Can Expect
You will need to adhere and comply with these new regulations. Expect your budget to increase. This is not something that you will want to outsource to another company. You will need to take the steps to make sure that you install security, protection, privacy and any similar protocols into the framework of your company. Training and educating each individual that is involved in any process of data collection will need to occur. Every person will need to maintain proper protocol in order to protect privacy and security.
What Will Happen If You Don’t Comply
If you decide to ignore the law, you may face fines up €20m or 4% of your global annual turnover. That’s right, you read that correctly… roughly $23,000,00 US.
Don’t Panic, But You Do Need To Act Before May 25th
We’re here to help – you have an opportunity to save a lot of your data but you should act fast. In addition you’ll need a new privacy policy and to make sure your website and email communications are compliant. Call GB today and we’ll make sure you have nothing to worry about.