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After years of discussion, debate, lobbying and lamenting, we are now twelve months from the date the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) takes effect. The GDPR replaces the EU’s Directive 95/46/EC, which has provided data protection guidance in the EU since 1995. The purported purpose for enacting the GDPR is to create regulatory consistency and certainty for companies operating in the EU with respect to their obligations to protect personal information for citizens of EU states. With a fining mechanism that allows penalties as high as 4% of global turnover (i.e., gross-revenue), any company that has yet to take a hard look at its obligations under the GDPR would be well-advised to do so before it’s too late. Moreover, the breadth of the regulation will create compliance headaches for nearly every organization, large and small.
