The World Wide Web has significantly altered the way we do everyday tasks and conduct business. We purchase goods, pay bills, share documents, and send email by inputting our personal details online without hesitation.
But do you know how much private data your company is collecting over the internet? Or what happens to that data? The recent implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) addresses these and other data privacy concerns, and it's imperative for businesses to familiarize themselves with the changes.
If your company does business with citizens of the EU, there's a handful of directives you need to learn.
GDPR explained
The GDPR legislation, which came into effect on May 25, 2018, applies to companies that conduct any business with EU citizens, regardless of where the transaction is done. Its main purpose is to safeguard the data and privacy of EU citizens and assure that whatever information they give out is protected.
Based on the GDPR, private data refers to information such as name, email address, home address, medical records, and any other personally identifiable variables. The GDPR enforces stricter rules on processing these data and guarantees that consumers have the following rights:
Right to be notified – In case of a data breach, companies must notify their customers within 72 hours upon becoming aware of the breach.
Right to object – A company should cease processing data of customers who refuse to provide personal data for direct marketing and similar purposes.
Right to correct their information – Companies are required to amend incorrect or outdated information.
Right to be informed – Organizations must inform their customers that they'll be gathering and using their personal data, and that they will only do so once they've provided consent.
Right to be forgotten – Organizations must erase personal data in cases where a customer no longer transacts with them and wishes to have their personal information deleted from their database.
Right to access – People should be able to look at their personal data and ask what your company is doing with their information. They can also request for a free electronic format copy of their data.
GDPR’s impact on businesses
The GDPR regulations certainly affect how businesses conduct their operations, regardless of whether they have operations within the EU territory or not. What's more, companies will incur extra costs as they try to achieve full compliance. Non-compliance, however, comes with heftier costs -- about 4% of your organization's annual global revenue or 20 million euros (about 23 million USD), whichever is higher.
One of the many ways you can avoid penalties is by refining key operational tasks, like reviewing your marketing strategies, ensuring email marketing best practices, and more. Other procedures should also be refined, such as those involving newsletter sign-up procedures and obtaining consent when buying marketing lists. It’s also worth noting that any data that your firm holds must have an audit trail that reports when the customer opted in and how.
The GDPR may pose some challenges for businesses, but the latter will benefit from full compliance in the long run. Achieving full compliance is a complex and tedious process. Get in touch with Complete Technology’s IT Support team and get a free consultation today!
Like This Article?
Sign up below and once a month we'll send you a roundup of our most popular posts
