It’s Data Protection Day 2019
Today is the day we’ve been looking forward to all year, yes that’s right, it’s Data Protection Day 2019! Are you celebrating as we are, by unsubscribing from the email newsletters that we don’t actually read, or maybe downgrading social media access or installing a new ad blocker on your favourite web browser? We thought so…
For most of us, 2018 was a year not unlike any other… apart from May. Our email inboxes, websites and mobile apps were inundated with Privacy Policy changes and there were a lot more cookie notifications popping up everywhere. Sadly, it wasn’t chocolate chip cookies, but rather little files that pass information about your web browsing back to host servers. In a surprisingly high number of websites, we are now greeted by “cookie walls” that stop us accessing content on the website until we consent to cookies (again, sadly not chocolate chip), however consent doesn’t really work where consent is a condition of the service we are accessing.
The General Data Protection Regulation, harmonising data privacy rules across the EU became law in all 28 member states on 25th May 2018. The intention was to make it easier for data to be transferred around the EU, enabling modern businesses to grow, whilst still upholding and improving the data rights of people like you and I, people whose data is often collected, processed and shared by organisations large and small.
On this celebration day — called Data Protection Day in the UK & EU and Data Privacy Day in the US — it’s useful to take a look at some of the things that have been happening in the data protection space.
Who is joining the club?
During the last year, Brazil, Canada, Pakistan, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia and China, along with California, Ohio & South Carolina in the US, have revamped existing or established new data protection laws.
It seems that the rest of the world is following suit in entering a new era of privacy where personal data are concerned. All of which is great news for people and has lots of benefits for companies looking to make a statement about integrity, fairness and the legitimacy of collecting our information.
Last year the Veritas Global Data Privacy study, conducted in 14 countries, asked 12,500 respondents how they would react to personal data misuse. 47% responded say they would consider moving to a competitor if a company lost data. If those 47% were all customers of one company, that’s nearly half of the customers moving to a competitor. Could your business sustain that kind of exodus? Interestingly, 79% added that they would tell friends and family to move elsewhere too.
Late to the party?
Implementing data protection safeguards within our businesses, charities and organisations doesn’t have to be challenging or scary, but it does have to be done right. Here at GB3 we have supported and led organisations through policy design, training and the implementation of both technical and organisational controls. For those organisations that don’t want to take the risk when it comes to people’s data, we are acting as Data Protection Officers or in some cases, retained data privacy advisors. It pays to have the right information, right when you need it.
If establishing a data protection review is still on your agenda, or you need help understanding how to respond to Subject Access Requests (bear in mind they have a shorter timeframe and are now free of charge to the requestor), we’d love to hear from you. We’ll have a solution that’s right for you and your business.
Special Offer
Finally, to help you celebrate Data Protection Day 2019, we’re shaving 10% off our consultancy fees when undertaking a gap analysis across your organisation.
Contact us at gdpr@gb3.co.uk
