GDPR Compliance

Data is big business. You don’t need us to tell you that. Protection and management of such data and people’s privacy are becoming increasingly important. Since 25 May 2018, every company in the European Union that processes personal data as well as any company worldwide that processes personal data of persons in the European Union must comply with the new European General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). The aim? To get rid of the fragmented privacy rules of the Member States; to make everyone equal in the eyes of the law. This is therefore good news for companies or organisations operating internationally.

Before the GDPR, national privacy laws already aimed to protect citizens against the misuse of their personal data and laid down the citizen’s rights and the processor’s obligations. These obligations were seldom enforced, however. Only in a few sectors (healthcare, for example) companies or organisations were expected to appoint a security consultant and comply with the ISO 27001 standard.

The European GDPR goes one step further and puts the emphasis on the protection of individual personal data of any nature (private, professional or public) or form (name, photograph, email address, bank data, posts on social media, medical information, IP address of the computer, etc.) whatsoever. Every company or organisation managing personal data must comply with the new rules. There are no exceptions. In fact, the fines are not to be scoffed at, up to 4% of worldwide turnover. Some hefty fines have already been imposed by national data protection authorities. On top of any financial damage, companies should also take into account the damage to their reputation and public image. And that’s probably a risk you’d rather not run, right?

Legally and technologically

Laws are often abstract and difficult to interpret. Your most important challenge? Translating the GDPR rules into specific actions. BDO consultants know how companies think and function, how they can help transpose legal texts into an operational plan of action; bespoke, correct, without overkill; extremely pragmatic, transparent and independent. In addition, you should know that the new rules don’t just have a legal impact. Processes and technology must be in place too. To gather, check, manage or even delete data correctly. Yes, we’re great at doing that too.

What are you looking for?

An independent partner who helps you with the following:

• GDPR assessment;
• GDPR implementation;
• GDPR compliance;
• legal advice on GDPR;
• or fulfils the role of an external Data Protection Officer because it is difficult to find suitable candidates internally;
• etc.