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So, what are the general data protection regulations and why should you care about these regulation changes?
The general data protection regulations are used as a means to protect and ensure the privacy of all Internet users’ data. With that in mind, this rule change effects following: all sites, online businesses, personal blogs, and apps. Moreover, websites who don’t abide by the updated general data protection regulations will be penalized financially.
Fines for not following the latest General Data Protection Regulations come in two forms.
First, for minor offenses that violate only a few terms, an individual (or company) is faced with a fine of either 10 million pounds or 2% of their profits. Whichever of these two numbers produces the largest monetary penalty is issued. For more serious offenses, potential fines double to either 20 million pounds or 4% of total profits.
Now, let’s take a look at the actual changes that have been made to the latest version of the General Data Protection Regulations. These changes can be broken down into seven broad categories.
1. Sites must receive consent to collect data from consumers. Consent must be presented to the consumer in easy to understand terms. In addition, consumers need to be afforded the option to revoke this privilege at any time.
2. Sites must notify consumers of any breach, no matter the size, within a 72 hour time window. Also, sites that utilize a data controller are expected to notify them in the same time span.
3. Sites must grant individual consumers access to their data at the consumer’s request. The data should be presented in a full report and include an explanation for the purpose of the data collection.
4. Consumers have the right to have their data removed from any site once it has been used for its specified purpose. It is up to the actual consumer to file a request for this data removal.
5. Consumers have both the right to access their data and the right to utilize data outside of the initial circumstances in which it was collected.
6. Sites are expected to tighten their security on consumer data and ensure that the information is used appropriately.
7. Sites are strongly encouraged to hire a data protection officer to monitor the collection, storage, and use of customer data. This is crucial for larger companies with immense amounts of data.
So, what’s the bottom line with the latest General Data Protection Regulations changes?
Sites can expect to spend a good amount of money in the short term on upgrading technology and making changes to their privacy practices. However, in the long term, these upfront costs will help avoid pricey fines. Not only that, but this increased emphasis on consumer privacy will enable companies to improve trust with consumer and their overall reputation.
