On May 25, 2018, the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) took effect. This law makes significant changes to European data privacy and security requirements for companies dealing with individuals located in the EU (whether they are citizens, immigrants, or visitors at the time their data is collected). So what? How would such a technical EU regulation effect a U.S.-based construction company?

The EU has always had a different take on the protection of personal information than the United States. GDPR was implemented because, essentially, the EU’s old data protection laws that were first enacted (way back in 1995) were perceived to be inadequate to keep up with the explosive growth in data and the technology surrounding it. According to the GPDR website, the new regulation was designed to “to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, to protect and empower all EU citizens’ data privacy and to reshape the way organizations across the region approach data privacy.”

What Information Is Involved?