New EU Data Protection Regulation

The European Commission passed a new law about the protection of personal data, after four years of discussion.

The previous data protection directive dates from 1995, when the internet was a relatively new thing without clear and fair rules. The goal of this new legislation is to create a uniform set of rules across the EU to replace the current patchwork of national laws.

In the EU, privacy is really a fundamental right, no questions asked. We can say, that in Europe, your data is really yours, nobody can sell or handle it without your permission. There are some other major differences between the US and the EU point of view, but I think this is the most important.

Let me show you the 3 most interesting points of the new General Data Protection Regulation:

1. Conditions for consent

Under the General Data Protection Regulation, all companies will be required to gain consent from customers or partners before collecting their data. This means that the person concerned will have to give clear and affirmative consent to the data processing. No more pre-ticked “I Agree” boxes!

From now on, it should also be as easy for a person to withdraw this consent as to give it. Also, companies will need historical consent as well, so businesses will need to get renewed permission from people they already have profiles on.

The new law also provides special protection for children.

2. Transparent information and communication

The European Parliament insisted that information should be given in a clear and plain language. So no more complex-legal language for those Privacy Policies!

3. Right to be forgotten and to erasure

Any person will have the right to be forgotten, and have his or her personal data erased when he or she no longer wants their data to be processed. If somebody asks an internet company to erase his or her data, that company should also forward the request to any others, who replicated that data.

There are more interesting pillars of this new regulation, like the right to data portability and the data protection impact assessment.

he main thing about this regulation is that companies based outside of Europe will have to apply the same rules when offering services in the EU. No loopholes, everybody has to comply. The EU’s Protection Directive also guarantees specific rules for the transfer of personal data outside the EU to ensure the best possible protection of your data when it is exported abroad.

Companies that fail to comply, or neglect the new regulation will face huge penalties. We discuss the amount of the fine for companies and the measures based on profiling in our article.

It’s a huge step for our privacy

As Jan Philipp Albrecht (Greens, DE), who steered the legislation through Parliament said:

“Citizens will be able to decide for themselves which personal information they want to share”

We at Crosssec Solutions are more than happy with this. We have already worked with the same ideas in mind while developing our products. Our HQ and servers are all located in the EU, so we will conduct our operation not just according to the new General Data Protection Regulation, but the other fair and strong European laws as well.

This regulation will give us the legal background and support to protect our data, while we already have the technical solution for it with our unique encryption algorithm and the S-key.

We think that your data should be only yours, and we are pleased with this new and up to date regulation.

With a Crosssec account you can safely access your data anytime, from anywhere. Try it for free!