The General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) is an EU piece of Law (2016/679) with which all UK businesses will need to comply from May 2018.
It sets out how businesses need to deal with the processing of personal data. It’s not totally new as the principles of its predecessor (EU Directive 95/46/EC) were introduced in the UK back in the 90s in the form of the Data Protection Act 1998.
The UK does not currently have its own version of the Regulations (and the Brexit inspired Great Reform Act may take care of that) but for now, we can work from this EU framework safe in the knowledge that come May 2018, all UK businesses must comply with its contents.
So what is it all about?
In simple terms it’s about giving people more control over their personal data and preventing that personal data being abused. If implemented and enforced correctly it should reduce, for example, the amount of spam emails and cold calls we receive and also reduce the risk of our personal details being targeted by hackers.
Dealers and garages will no doubt keep a fair amount of personal data on customers. This data will include paper invoices with addresses and telephone numbers, digital invoices and systems which generate letters/emails/texts to customers to remind them their MOT or service is due. IP addresses are now personal data too and so this all needs to be considered.
Over the next few weeks, Lawgsistics will be explaining the law in more detail and advising what business should be doing to ensure they comply.
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