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GDPR – The four-letter magic word adopted on 14th of April 2016 & became enforceable on 25th May 2018. It was in January 2012 when the European Commission set out plans for data protection reform over & across the European Union to make Europe ‘fit for the digital age’. It took four years, for the agreement to reach what that involved and how it will be enforced.
But what does general data protection regulations really mean for you, your trade & your customers?
Ever since its approval on 14th of April 2016, GDPR has been causing anxiety among professionals in the field of data protection, data marketing, and security. As GDPR served as a stimulant for several investments of millions of dollars to reach compliance on 25th May 2018.
General data protection regulation is the set of requirement that’s set forth by European Union Parliament to give citizens more control over their personal data. Its objective is to simplify the restrictive environment for business to protect the citizens from privacy & data breaches and to ensure that both citizens and businesses in the EU can benefit from the digital economy.
The reforms are crafted to match the world we’re living in today, which has become frequently threatened with the advancement of malware, data-breaches, cyber-security & hacking activity. GDPR lays out a long list of requirements which are to be complied by organizations to ensure that the personal data is collected legally & under strict conditions and those who gather & manage it will be compelled to protect it from misuse & exploitation or face penalties for not doing so.
Before going berserk on GDPR- ask yourself first, whether & to what extent GDPR applies to you. The concept of GDPR will apply to you if your organization is acknowledged within the EU, you are handling data on individuals in the EU with whom you want to do business or if you are tracking the behavior of individuals in the EU. This simply put states that, all major organizations across the globe must be GDPR compliant or risk the penalties.
There are also two distinct types of data-handlers the GDPR applies to- Data Controllers & Data Processors.
Data controllers are the individuals, public authority, agency or other bodies which, alone or jointly with others who supervise & are accountable for gathering & using personal data. It’s important for you to understand whether these regulations apply to your organization as a whole, as these data controllers come with great legal responsibilities.
Data processors are individuals, public authorities, agencies or other bodies which, alone or jointly with others who process personal data on behalf of the controller. Examples include accounting or payroll management companies.
The distinction is important because under GDPR, a controller will hold most of the liability if the organization experiences a breach while the responsibility of a processor is making sure all the controllers they work with are GDPR compliant.
At the core of GDPR lies the concept of personally identifying information & any personal data, which is defined as “information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person ‘data subject’,” is in the extent of the regulation. But however, GDPR does not apply to data that “does not relate to an identified or identifiable natural person or to data rendered anonymous in such a way that the data subject is no longer identifiable.”
“Pseudonymization”- is one of the top ten operational impacts of the GDPR in European data protection law. Pseudonymization refers to the disconnection of data from direct accessories so that the linkage to an individual’s identity is impossible without the additional information that’s held separately. Hence, pseudonymization can notably reduce the risks that’s associated with data processing, while maintaining the data’s utility. For this to happen, GDPR also devises incentives to pseudonymize the data that they gather.
Even though pseudonymization is suggested it shouldn’t be used to split up identifiers from the data subjects concerning privately identifiable information in order to circumvent other commitments. What marketers should keep in mind is that pseudonomyzed information comes under GDPR and it is meant for decreasing the risk of data subject, not some inside trick to bypass other rules.
Much of the focus has been on how GDPR will be influencing businesses but the new regulation is also crafted to have a big impact on consumers, especially in terms with improving customer journey. Since winning the customer experience is going to decide the winners of the future, data is the main weapon of the battleground & GDPR is the perfect opportunity for organizations to rethink their data approach & the enhanced customer relationships & experience it allows.
By complying with GDPR, organizations will need to better understand what data they hold, why they hold it, how they gained permission for it & whom they are sharing the information with. They also need to ensure that they are being upfront while communicating regarding this with customers, as well as granting individuals the chance to manage their own data.
GDPR has categorized 8 fundamental rights for European citizens which are:
GDPR is already in force with the days & weeks prior to it seeing a rush in organizations sending emails to their customers requesting them to opt-in to new privacy and consent policies. Perhaps the greatest changes with the impact of GDPR are the restrictions in relation to the transfer of data to countries outside the EU.
DataCaptive is dedicated to GDPR compliance & our B2B contact database will satisfy all personal data privacy requirements. We also recommend that associates & customers who use, process or control the personal data of individuals within EU prepare for GDPR.
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