NEWS

Is Your Business Prepared for GDPR?

On 25 May 2018 new rules are set to take effect which will impact on the way businesses collect, process and store personal data.  The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) proposes to extensively reform existing cyber-security and data protection practices and impose heavy fines on businesses that fail to protect their customer data.

The GPPR will make it mandatory for companies to conduct data privacy impact assessments to identify risks and mitigations before engaging in high risk activities. It will require them to obtain clear affirmative consent from involved parties before initiating data collection activities, identify all personal data, assess how they are stored and for what purpose they are used to prepare for audits and obtain explicit parental consent for any data collected about minors

Compared to the fines imposed under the existing Data Protection Act, the new regulations will make it prohibitively expensive for business who choose not to comply.  The GDPR will impose fines an upper limit of £17.5m or 4% of a company’s global turnover whichever will be higher. 

According to a YouGov survey (May 2017) of over 2000 UK businesses, 71% businesses are unaware of fines under the GDPR.  Only 29% have started preparing for the new regulations.

The ico (Information Commissioner’s Office) has information about the GDPR on its data protection reform website.  It also includes a guide and checklist to help organisations get ready for the new rules.

03/08/2017