The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire Edition 26: Aug/ Sept 2016 | Page 27

TECHNOLOGY
REVVED UP

Why Brexit won’t save you from the
General Data Protection Regulation
It’s come as a surprise to many but, on June 24 it was announced that the
United Kingdom decided to leave the European Union. However, leaving the
EU doesn’t mean the end of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
As a UK-registered company you’ll have heard about the new data protection
rules which will start being enforced by the European Union in 2018.
With Brexit now a reality, it’s important that the impact of
these regulations is understood:
• We won’t officially leave the EU until Article 50 has been
triggered, it will then take a minimum of 2 years after
that to officially leave.
• The GDPR was agreed in December 2015 and will
become enforceable by 2018.
• The EU’s data protection rules will affect every entity that
holds or uses European personal data both inside and
outside of Europe.
• It’s extremely likely that the UK will enforce its own Data
Protection Regulation that will be very similar, perhaps
even identical, to the EU regulations. Recent events
aside, there are many other, powerful, reasons why you
should ensure the appropriate levels of security are in
place when handling your clients’ (and your) data.

• Your clients won’t thank you for losing their data. They
will be even less pleased if their data is not encrypted
and can be exploited by cyber-criminals.
• You will be fined 4% of global turnover or 20m euros
per data breach (whichever is higher) whilst remaining
under EU regulations.
• You’ll have to report a data breach to the ICO within
72 hours of becoming aware of it. The notification of
this breach will then be accessible in the public domain
which could destroy your reputation and credibility
• Implementing appropriate, layered, security and
ensuring that all personal, identifiable information is the
highlighted risks.

changes anything! If you would like to learn how you can
be ahead of the data protection curve then book your seat
at one of our free seminars on Encryption (see below).

The best time to start looking at protecting your business
is now. Don’t wait until 2018 and don’t imagine that Brexit

Reserve your seat today
Ref “TBE” on 01367 700555.
A free seminar...

EU Data Protection Regulation:
Is your business prepared?...
Seminar Times - 10am - 2pm.

What you need to know about the new EU Data Protection Regulation.

In March 2014, the European parliament voted by an overwhelming majority in favour of legislation to protect the
security of its citizens’ data. The resulting legislation is due to come into force in 2016 with penalties of up to 20m
Euros or 4% of annual turnover per data breach.

Making IT Work Smarter For Your Business

Location:
West Venture Building (The Bunker),
New Greenham Park, Newbury,
Berkshire, RG19 6HN.

THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2016

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