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The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the most important change in data privacy regulation in 20 years. The enforcement date is 25 May 2018 – at which time those organizations in non-compliance will face heavy fines. If you need to keep up to date on GDPR and how it develops, there are gdpr lawyers that can keep you informed about this new regulation.

Who does the GDPR affect?

The GDPR not only applies to organizations located within the EU but it will also apply to organizations located outside of the EU if they offer goods or services to, or monitor the behavior of, EU data subjects. There are many articles out there displaying the laws and regulations of this new change coming in to place, some of which you can read here.

It applies to all companies processing and holding the personal data of data subjects residing in the European Union, regardless of the company’s location. If your company is affected by GDPR, then you need to make sure that your business is GDPR compliance.

What constitutes personal data?

Any information related to a natural person or ‘Data Subject’, that can be used to directly or indirectly identify the person. It can be anything from a name, a photo, an email address, bank details, posts on social networking websites, medical information, or a computer IP address.

12 Steps to Take Now

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has produced a handy guide and diagram, which recommends that organisations take the following steps:-

1. Awareness- You should make sure that decision makers and key people in your organisation are aware that the law is changing to the GDPR. They need to appreciate the impact this is likely to have.
2. Information you hold– You should document what personal data you hold, where it came from and who you share it with. You may need to organise an information audit, and consider changing the organisation methods for the personal data. Digitising it via FilecenterDMS.com or similar software can help with this process if you are still handling physical documents in your business.
3. Communicating privacy information– You should review your current privacy notices and put a plan in place for making any necessary changes in time for GDPR implementation.
4. Individuals’ rights– You should check your procedures to ensure they cover all the rights individuals have, including how you would delete personal data or provide data electronically and in a commonly used format.
5. Subject access requests– You should update your procedures and plan how you will handle requests within the new timescales and provide any additional information.
6. Lawful basis for processing personal data– You should identify the lawful basis for your processing activity in the GDPR, document it and update your privacy notice to explain it.
7. Consent– You should review how you seek, record and manage consent and whether you need to make any changes. Refresh existing consents now if they don’t meet the GDPR standard.
8. Children- You should start thinking now about whether you need to put systems in place to verify individuals’ ages and to obtain parental or guardian consent for any data processing activity.
9. Data breaches- You should make sure you have the right procedures in place to detect, report and investigate a personal data breach.
10. Data Protection by Design and Data Protection Impact Assessments- You should familiarise yourself now with the ICO’s code of practice on Privacy Impact Assessments as well as the latest guidance from the Article 29 Working Party, and work out how and when to implement them in your organisation.
11. Data Protection Officers– You should designate someone to take responsibility for data protection compliance and assess where this role will sit within your organisation’s structure and governance arrangements. You should consider whether you are required to formally designate Data Protection Officer.
12. International- If your organisation operates in more than one EU member state (ie you carry out cross-border processing), you should determine your lead data protection supervisory authority. Article 29 Working Party guidelines will help you do this.

To download the ICO’s “Preparing for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)- 12 steps to take now” Guide and Diagram visit https://ico.org.uk/media/1624219/preparing-for-the-gdpr-12-steps.pdf

Image Credit: Information Commissioner’s Office

Resources:-

• http://www.eugdpr.org/gdpr-faqs.html
• https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-reform/overview-of-the-gdpr/
• https://ico.org.uk/media/1624219/preparing-for-the-gdpr-12-steps.pdf

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