Privacy is important. And with the advent of newer methods of infringing upon them, the need as well as the difficulty of managing them has grown to epic proportions. With the EU bearing down upon companies and professionals operating out of Europe, and impressing the importance of maintaining high standards of user privacy and security upon them.
As many as 97 percent of US professionals agree that they will need to increase their investments into the management of privacy. A significant portion of the same professionals also agree that they have yet to take baby steps to make preparations for the world’s biggest privacy regulation, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR.
The primary objectives of the GDPR are to give control back to citizens and residents over their personal data and to simplify the regulatory environment for international business by unifying the regulation within the EU.[1] When the GDPR takes effect, it will replace the data protection directive (officially Directive 95/46/EC)[2] from 1995. The regulation was adopted on 27 April 2016. It applies from 25 May 2018 after a two-year transition period and, unlike a directive, it does not require any enabling legislation to be passed by national governments.
This is certainly interesting, specially considering the fact that Americans as a rule don’t take kindly to someone else telling them what to do. However, they seem to have made an exception in this case, where the security and privacy of their data is concerned. Which really speaks volumes about the state of their own government when it comes to these matters.
On many matters, the new US administration appears to be going against what would have generally been accepted as common sense. In many other cases, it isn’t even taking the trouble to do much. Data protection seems to fall in the latter category. The US government does not seem overly capable of reaching an agreed upon decision when it comes to data protection and as such, is it a surprise that professionals are grabbing for whatever is available?
Once the GDPR is here, it will allow companies to conform a fixed, well established standard. And trust me, it will be a relief for the companies themselves as well. Not only will it remove the need to account for multiple standards, it will also ensure a fair and common set of conditions for all.
