Over the past 12 months, agencies in charge of policing personal data rules have handed out fines totaling over £56m to businesses failing to protect the public.
And just because the UK will be leaving the EU, doesn’t mean that the rules will stop having an impact on British businesses.
So far, there have been well over 200,000 reported cases, and worryingly for those who may not have made the appropriate changes, watchdogs say; ‘we’re only just warming up’, after the first year of operations.
So, if you think the storm has blown over and all of the screaming and shouting on LinkedIn was all terribly dramatic, you’re wrong.
You need to be 1000% sure your business is compliant, as a fine could be more damaging than showing your partner your personal search history…
Here are the things to check to ensure your business complies with GDPR.
If you have an email database, it is critical that you have the permission of each and every person to send them any kind of email.
Even if you had captured their email before GDPR came into effect, you need to have gotten in touch with your existing digital audience to ask if it is ok for you to send them content in the future.
You’ll also need clear messaging on your website to notify people that they will receive emails if they do provide consent.
It’s critical that at least one member of staff has undergone GDPR training and knows the rules and regulations.
If not, sending somebody on a training course is advisable as they’ll understand how to follow the rules on;
-Regular and systematic monitoring of data subjects on a large scale
-The processing of data on a large scale
If you think that you can pretend like nothing has happened after you’ve had a data breach, you clearly haven’t learned anything from Jurassic Park, when they don’t seem to panic when one electric fence becomes ‘faulty’.
If you realise there has been a data breach, you need to let the right people know immediately, as this will ensure you don’t get in trouble trying to cover it up.
If you need to report a data breach, click here and you’ll be directed to the right people.
If you still don’t know how to comply with GDPR without any risk of slip-ups, get in touch with our team who will be able to make a full assessment and bespoke recommendation.
Drop us a message and we’ll be in touch.