What is GDPR?

General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR for short, came into force on May 15, 2018. The main goal of GDPR is to provide you with greater control over your personal information. And, we’re talking about far more than simply your name and address when we refer to “personal data.” GDPR applies to anything that can be used to identify you, including your IP address, the websites you visit, and the images you submit.

Regardless of where a company is located, it must comply with GDPR if it handles the data of EU citizens. This implies that businesses need to wake up and take attention, all the way from Shanghai to Silicon Valley.

The regulation grants individuals several rights regarding their personal data:

• The right to be informed about the collection and use of their personal data
• The right to access their personal data
• The right to rectification of inaccurate data
• The right to erasure (also known as the “right to be forgotten”)
• The right to restrict processing
• The right to data portability
• The right to object to processing
• Rights related to automated decision making and profiling

Individuals now have more influence over how businesses utilize their personal information because of these rights.

There are strong enforcement mechanisms supporting the regulation. For violations, supervisory bodies may fine a company up to €20 million or 4% of its global yearly revenue from the previous fiscal year, whichever is greater. These hefty fines highlight the value of compliance and act as a powerful deterrence.

GDPR has significantly changed how data protection is practiced around the world. In order to bring their data protection legislation closer to the principles of the GDPR, many non-EU nations have revised or created new ones. Applying a single, strict norm to all markets is usually more feasible, thus for multinational corporations, GDPR compliance becomes the de facto standard for their global operations.