FINAL WORD
exactly what the GDPR means and what its
ongoing impact will be. Overall, Germany
remains extremely positive about the
GDPR’s potential, calling it ‘one of the best
ways for consumers to enforce their rights.’
IT Web Africa (Africa): GDPR – SA
companies ‘not off the hook’
Highly regarded African technology
publication, IT Web Africa, has reported
on the GDPR’s wider reach to any business
across the world. Even though South
Africa’s well-publicised Protection of
Personal Information – POPI – is already
well in place and comes with its own
penalties, compliance specialist, Leilani Smit
commented of South African businesses that
they will have to begin to think globally when
it comes to data protection.
Marianne Calder, VP
& MD EMEA, Puppet
“
ONE OF THE
LARGEST ‘MYTHS’
AROUND THE
BUILD-UP TO ITS
IMPLEMENTATION
IS THAT IF YOU
ARE NOT IN
THE EU THEN IT
DOESN’T APPLY
TO YOU.
readers that it was ‘engaged on the issue
and committed to looking at options to
adhere to the GDPR in the future’.
ABC News (Australia): New GDPR
privacy laws triggering data emails
from Twitter, eBay and others
including huge fines
ABC News, a leading news outlet in Australia,
reiterated the importance of organisations
now being liable for what happens to the
personal data they hold. With the GDPR
stated as setting ‘a new international
standard for privacy’, it’s clear the impact
is being felt even so far overseas. However,
Australian media remains cautious about
its overall efficacy, closing with the sensible
advice that Internet users still need to be
vigilant about what data they share and
whom they share it with.
Zeit Campus (Germany): ‘We could
have informed people better’
Times, have temporarily blocked EU users
over these new data protection rules.
With this mind, let’s take a look at what the
rest of the world is saying about the GDPR.
When it comes to the US, despite the
inconvenience of Europeans no longer being
able to access certain news outlets, there is
ongoing commitment from US organisations
towards achieving compliance. One such
affecting company, Tronc, reminded its
104
INTELLIGENTCIO
Leading German publication, Zeit
Campus, has published an interview with
long-standing member of the European
parliament and rapporteur for the GDPR,
Jan Philipp Albrecht. While Germany is a
country with its own historically strict data
privacy and location rules, the interview
suggests that the GDPR is still causing
confusion in the region. The article makes
clear the need for continued, easy-to-
understand and reliable information about
South China Morning Post (China):
GDPR is here: Mess up and we’ll fine
you, warns EU Privacy Chief
Chinese news outlet, the South China
Morning Post, has published an article
focusing more on the consequences that will
occur if businesses are not complying with
these regulations – specifically referring to
businesses located outside of the EU, like
Facebook. The article cites the GDPR as the
beginning of a new era for everyone, quoting
Andrea Jelinek, EU Data Protection Chief
Regulator: “If there are reasons to warn we
will warn; if there are reasons to reprimand
we will do that; and if we have reasons to
fine, we are going to fine.”
For more than a year now, businesses
across Europe have been slowly ge tting
to grips with the uncertainty surrounding
the GDPR implementation and with the
official launch, it is clear that the rest of
the world is taking notice. The GDPR will
bring with it the beginning of new, global
conversations and changes for the rights of
individuals over their own data. Now that
the regulation is in place, we will see the
conversation quickly shift to how businesses
can maintain compliance to win and retain
the trust of consumers. Succeeding with
this will require changes not just to policy,
but in the way that data is managed within
an organisation. Businesses will need to
continue considering which technologies, like
encryption software or process automation,
are there to help. n
www.intelligentcio.com