GDPR explained and the benefits for your company

For many business owners GDPR is a reasonably mysterious new regulation being implemented by the EU. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been proposed to strengthen and unify data protection for citizens of the European Union. It also deals with personal data being exported out of the EU. It comes into place on the 25th May 2018, which seems like a long way off but there may be lots of changes companies must make in the way they currently organise, manage and protect their data.

After the results of Brexit business owners may have assumed that they do not have to change anything to conform to this regulation; this is not the case. For any British companies who deal with or handle any information from EU citizens it will still be mandatory for them to get up to speed and adapt to suit the needs of the GDPR.

Reasons that getting ready for GDPR will being benefits to your Business

  • There is nothing more important for a business than its reputation and major data breaches have made global headlines. Being certified as GDPR compliant will boost your business’s reputation in the eyes of potential customers as they will see you as secure. With the enlisting of a Data Protection Officer, they will be able to explain to the clients how their data and personal information is stored.
  • With reputation comes loyal customers, and with your repute of being ‘Cyber Safe’ you will notice that with improved cybersecurity existing customers will continue using you. A report published in the US in 2016 for FireEye concluded that 76% of customers admitted they would take their business elsewhere if the firm was guilty of careless data and information handling. The report also continues by showing that a further 59% of consumers would take legal action against the company if their private information was stolen or lost and used for criminal purposes.
  • Some companies store an incredible amount of data and some store very little. Whichever one applies to you, you can agree that is vital to have accurate data. With the transition to getting GDPR ready your company database will have improved accuracy of the data stored. The reason for this is that the customer will be able to inspect, and validate and even erase data under their ‘right to be forgotten’. These rights are already in place but since the new regulation requires a data controller to rectify any errors they are notified of, the accuracy of the data stored will be greatly improved.
  • At present, investigating a data breach is a difficult process, this is because each country has its own rules and enforcement agencies to fight cybercrime. It was hard to figure out with agency did what, especially when the crime spanned across land borders. Each state had to work with the other in trying to investigate and resolve the issue and hope they could figure it out. The new regulation will introduce a lead authority in each state which has the legal right to act and confer with the local authorities on the matter. Due to this centralised reporting process, it makes resolving issues a lot easier whichever country they are in.

See our countdown timer below to see how long you have until you need to be ready!

Gregory Olczyk

Gregory Olczyk