In a digital transformation era, customers' sensitive personal information held by business organizations pose a significant risk if they are stolen and misused. The data protection laws across the globe have a common goal to protect the privacy of individuals. The general data protection regulation was introduced, which specifies how customer data should be used and protected. Most of us share our personal information on many web portals by clicking I Agree or I Accept the Terms and Conditions. Personal data contains information about the individual, including who they are, what they do, and where they go. Each of us leaves a digital footprint of our personal data in the cyber world. Data mining is new oil to the industry; it provides insights and a competitive advantage.
The GDPR compliance deadline is May 25, 2018. Every organization that keeps or uses European personal data inside or outside of Europe—regardless of the nature of the business in which it operates—is affected by the new data protection law.
Let's look at an example of how this impacts organizations worldwide.
A US organisation which collects data from EU personnel would be under the same legal obligations as the organisation's head-office which is anywhere within the EU. Even though they do not have an actual physical server or office in the EU, the basic idea was that if the data was not physically located in the EU zone, then the rules didn't even apply. For example, any social networking portal has to keep user information and if the user belongs to the EU, the information is stored on a server which is outside of EU boundaries.
Legislation has to be enforced by 25th May 2018 and this may result in huge penalties for organizations that fail to comply. The maximum penalty is €20 million or 4% of an organization's global turnover. This amount would be enough to close down many businesses. To avoid these steep consequences, preparation is the key to success.