Are You Ready for GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

Dr. USMAN ZAFAR, CEO DUC International Consulting & Board Advisor & Smart City Expert, Skillz ME
Dr. USMAN ZAFAR, CEO DUC International Consulting & Board Advisor & Smart City Expert, Skillz ME
7 years ago

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is set to go into effect on May 25. It will dramatically change current data privacy laws throughout Europe, strengthening the protection of personal data.

Do we see the new GDPR to effect also social media or digital marketing? If companies want to avoid hefty penalties, companies that conduct business in the EU need to ensure their business practices adhere to the new law’s strict guidelines. This applies also if you only want to process confidential personal data originating from the EU.

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Smart Cities are a reality, IoT is still not there to bring benefit to citizen and governments only technology emerged.

Dr. USMAN ZAFAR
CEO DUC International Consulting
& Board Advisor & Smart City Expert
Skillz ME

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However, according to a recent report by Forrester Research, only about 30 percent of global companies say they can deal with GDPR. Many have not yet started and progressed in the required work, which covers a data gathering process, classification, flow maps, and impact assessments. By the guidelines, these are all aspects towards data privacy.

The most substantial question for companies to consider is GDPR’s extended definition of what is to be considered personal data.

Considering the previous regulations information about age, race, gender, geographic location, and job title were protected because it could be used to identify a specific person.

Be that as it may, the new set of regulations incorporates medical information, pseudonymous data, cookie IDs, device IFAs, and other unique identifiers, such as IP addresses. Typical this is particularly crucial information for ad tech companies that harness first. More are also third-party data to help advertisers target viewers on over-the-top (OTT) or via connected TV devices part of the extended definition.

Just for our understanding, companies can still utilize personal data, but GDPR requires action and compliance, which may include asking users’ for consent or explaining their “legitimate interest” in the usage of their data.

Read the full infographic by SpotX, a video advertising and monetization platform for publishers, which explains the history of GDPR and its goals and provides a roadmap to compliance.

Are you active making business in the EU or do you think GDPR will be adopted in the future also in other regions? We know that in social media private data is getting more and more crucial. Share your mind with us in our commenting section below.