The UK’s data laws are changing on 25 May 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation, known as GDPR, comes into effect.  This article is to help you find out more about how the new regulation affects you and your data…

GDPR is seen as a really positive step in handing control of personal data back to the person it has been collected from, including how it’s used and how they’re contacted.  The changes are also seen as a better way to protect personal data used by companies and organisations.

 

So what is personal data?

Personal data, sometimes referred to as personal information, includes things like names, addresses and dates of birth.  This is what most people expect to be gathered, but it can also include who people work for, what people do for a living and anything else someone could use to identify an individual.  Every time someone shops online, uses an app, streams a video or ‘likes’ a social media post – it is generating data for someone.

 

GDPR: What are the scales involved?

Put simply, the scale is huge.  Every minute of every day across the world – internet users collectively publish 450,000 tweets and watch 69,000 hours of videos and films on Netflix.  That’s all in addition to the 4.1 million views on YouTube and 18 million weather forecasts requested by The Weather Channel*.

It’s not all funny cats, sunshine and flowers though – each minute 103 million spam emails are sent.  This is part of what GDPR is looking to help eliminate.

 

Helping people have more control

The new regulation supports the right to have individual privacy respected and data protected.  It is designed to give you confidence that the personal information organisations hold about an individual is accurate, up-to-date and managed properly.  They also have to give individuals easier access to this information to allow people to check and change it.

 

Choice and when and who to contact

Over the next few months leading up to the adoption of GDPR, companies should be contacting their customers for consent.  This consent is required for new and existing data.  It covers everything from special offers to account information.  Individuals will have the right to control if and how they wish to be contacted, for example by phone or email.

An example might be as one of our customers.  When you speak to us we may ask you to update your preferences.  You may also be prompted to choose how you want to receive service updates from us.

 

What do I need to do next?

Just so you know, we only use data to help us provide you with better customer service.  We respect your privacy and work hard to meet the strict regulatory requirements.  We promise we will never sell your details to third parties.

If you use one of our marketing services which is affected by changes from GDPR, we’ll be in touch before the deadline.  If you don’t work with us yet but would like us to explore how you might be affected, please get in touch.

 

 

*Source: Data Deluge: What People Do On The Internet, Every Minute of Every Day, Inc. – https://www.inc.com/john-koetsier/every-minute-on-the-internet-2017-new-numbers-to-b.html