Data Protection & GDPR

EU General Data Protection Regulations

The new regulations are quite comprehensive but at high level these are some of the changes being introduced to ensure data is protected:

Fines – Organisations can be liable for any data protection breaches with fines of up to €20million or 4% percent worldwide turnover (whichever is greater).

Breaches – any breaches are required to be reported within 72 hours.

Consent – must be freely given by the individual and must be specific, informed and unambiguous, for example opt-out tick boxes would be outlawed. Individuals should be able withdraw Consent at any time.

Data Protection Officers – Will be required for certain organisations. And all organisations should have various data protection policies and procedures in place.

Data Erasure – Individuals will have the right to have their personal data removed.

These regulations apply to all organisations large and small – if you store data about any individual in either paper or electronic format then the rules will apply to you. Examples of such data include staff records, customer records, medical records, student records, etc.