Data is the New Currency

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the toughest privacy and security law in the world. Though it was drafted and passed by the EU, it imposes obligations on to organisations anywhere, so long as they target or collect data related to people in the EU. The regulation was put into effect on May 25, 2018. The GDPR will levy harsh fines against those who violate its privacy and security standards, with penalties reaching into the tens of millions of euros.

With the GDPR, Europe is signalling its firm stance on data privacy and security at a time when more people are entrusting their personal data with cloud services and breaches are a daily occurrence. The regulation itself is large, far-reaching and fairly light on specifics, making GDPR compliance a daunting prospect, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises....

From now on, everything you do in your organisation must, 'by design and by default', consider data protection. Practically speaking, this means you must consider the data protection principles in the design of any new product or activity. Suppose you're launching a new app for your company. You have to think about what personal data the app could possibly collect from users, consider ways to minimise the amount of data and how you will secure it with the latest technology.


Once you've determined the lawful basis for your data processing, you need to document this basis and notify the data subject (transparency!). And, if you decide later to change your justification, you need to have a good reason, document this reason and notify the data subject.

From 'What is GDPR, the EU's New Data Protection Law?', gdpr.eu